Category Archives: Music

Yes, The Quest. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The search for what was lost on the way can often provide a sense of solace that cannot be found by simply soldiering on almost aimlessly, carrying on out of the force of habit and the indoctrination of tradition.

When we consider that the undertaking at hand is more than a mere journey, and instead that the purpose is to assume that there is indeed an acceptance of fate at stake, then what is revealed to those around you is the reflection of The Quest to come; and as with all self-sacrificing missions, the physical and the abandonment of ego, it becomes clear that rebirth, a renaissance of return can be found waiting to be played for the audience.

Yes, The Quest. Album Review. full post

(586 words, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

Roger Taylor, Outsider. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To the Outsider looking in, the world is not just a mad, obscene, and quite often ridiculous place, it is the source of all the wealth of inspiration and creative encouragement they need in which to place before those inside the bubble of insecurity and bid them the spur in which to change the world.

However, it is in that madness that the insiders dwell and party as though there is no tomorrow, and for all the beauty, all the demanding truth you lay at their door, inside the bubble of insanity, inhabited by no moral gangsters, charlatans and fake messiahs and gods, they continue listening to only their over inflated opinions and irrational brainstorming insight.

Roger Taylor, Outsider. Album Review. full post

(506 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

IndyAnna Baby, I’m Not Giving Up. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We all succumb to a kind of complacency when we are on top of the world, when we feel as though the moment of heightened enjoyment will last forever, it is natural, it is fleeting, and we cannot help ourselves forever seeking out the thrill of it. For in that rush that complacency provides, we forget the truth of its opposite nature, we forget that hope, that tireless courage and faith in the human spirit provides a far greater drive to see us take on the world than the dream of personal, permanent utopia.

IndyAnna Baby, I’m Not Giving Up. Single Review. full post

(374 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Blancmange, Commercial Break. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There are two ways to look at the world of advertising, one being is that is brings a product into our lives that is indispensable, that will go on to change the course of our day, our year because we were fortunate enough to understand the message that it was carrying; and the other is that we see it as an intrusion, a focused infringement into our psyche, one that can cause the weaker willed to purchase anything, everything, that is placed before them, and therefore cause a draining of resources that might have been put to better use elsewhere.

Blancmange, Commercial Break. Album Review. full post

(526 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Samantha Fish, Faster. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision 9/10

Light the blue touch paper and step back far enough so you don’t feel the scorch marks as the rocket takes off, take care when handling the explosive, the 12-track piece of dynamite provides, and admire fully the magnificence on display, the sense of eruption, the upsurge in heat as you decree that the eruption of sound that accompanies the spectacle should go Faster.

Samantha Fish, Faster. Album Review. full post

(381 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Tiki Black, The Sound Of The Broken Wand. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There will be sorcerers and magicians who insist you cannot perform without an intact wand, conductors who claim that the baton has to be unbroken and true for it to have any effect on the orchestra, they are of course wrong, for The Sound Of The Broken Wand is in the heart and soul of any communication, any magic spell weaved that leaves you entranced by what you have been made privy to; it might not be the spell or the incantation you were looking for, but in the right hands it is influential, it is charming, it is boisterous, uplifting, and embracing.

Tiki Black, The Sound Of The Broken Wand. Album Review. full post

(370 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Joanne Shaw Taylor, The Blues Album. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The one who owns a reckless heart has all the qualities in the world to be proud to unveil The Blues Album.

Once an artist has shown you their heart, you will forever be spellbound by their performance and fascinated by their acknowledgement of the blues within their soul; and that is certainly true of Britain’s premier 21st Century Blues player, Joanne Shaw Taylor, for in the simplicity of the recognition of her latest album’s title, lays behind it the pulse of a soul that truly has immersed itself into the hearts of those, regardless of their affiliation to other genres, who find themselves awestruck by her tenacity, her fierce, sheer unquenchable flame that illuminates her every move on her beloved guitar.

Joanne Shaw Taylor, The Blues Album. Album Review. full post

(428 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Lindsey Buckingham. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Art means nothing if you cannot learn from the pain you have endured, if you can’t find a way to rise above the anguish caused and leave a trace, a substantial peace offering, or indeed a proverbial middle finger to those who set you on your own path of discovery; for in the end art is meant to be the great healer and the great provider of revenge, and payback is not about keeping a war going, but living the best life you are able to, because nothing annoys the haters more than being able to live up to your name and the prestige it carries.

Lindsey Buckingham. Album Review. full post

(422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Manic Street Preachers, The Ultra Vivid Lament. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We are living in a time where the expression of grief is either firmly encouraged or damned as being self-interested, almost self-seeking, and there seems to be no middle ground between those who understand the empathy required to show someone you care enough to allow them the time and space needed to be able to go beyond the initial stages of hurt, and those who will do anything to ridicule and inflict further embarrassment on those willing to place their heart, not only on their sleeve, but in the glare of the intense judgement available of those with the loudest voices.

Manic Street Preachers, The Ultra Vivid Lament. Album Review. full post

(539 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Kacey Musgraves, Star-Crossed. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

To expect an artist to produce the same material time and again shows that find the process of individual evolution is beyond you, for whilst art has been reduced to an entertainment rather than attainment, we must remember that in the end the art has been only loaned to us, we are the ones who benefit from the process, but the overall canon of work belongs solely to the artist; it is their generosity and need that sees it come to life in the minds of those seeking illumination.

Kacey Musgraves, Star-Crossed. Album Review. full post

(382 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)