Category Archives: Music

Henry Bateman, A Ghost Inside. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is not beyond the realms of thought that we can look upon ourselves at this time as the children of fallen expectation, the high hopes we cherished, the plans we made, are being unravelled by A Ghost Inside the machine, and it is the spectre of our misdeeds, our failures to act in a responsible manner towards the place we call home, the continual cycle of abuse we visit from one generation to the next; it is no wonder that in the end the ghosts come back to haunt us and urge us to listen more and speak less.

Henry Bateman, A Ghost Inside. Album Review. full post

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Tiger Saw & The Reasons Why, Wet & Unlucky. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

A relationship is only as strong as the good will, truth and teamwork required to keep it on the right track, there is no room for cynicism, no area set aside for controlling interests, you are either in the association for the benefit of all parties concerned, and that of those you are hoping to edify with the merging sound of two separate entities, or you are playing games, pushing one of the two halves into the pouring rain and insisting that they are dry, that they are mistaken if they feel that they are the ones getting Wet & Unlucky.

Tiger Saw & The Reasons Why, Wet & Unlucky. Album Review. full post

(464 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Lump, Animal. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Always expect the unexpected, that way when the unique comes along you can celebrate it in an honourable fashion, with a smile, with the feeling of goosepimples lurching out of the skin and imploring the heart and mind to enjoy the thrill, the chill, of the spectacle and the release of what is underneath, the Animal uncaged.

Lump, Animal. Album Review. full post

(398 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Tina Turner, Foreign Affair (2021 Deluxe Edition). Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Tina Turner’s name alone is enough to cause celebration, to place a smile on lips that may have come to expect only sadness in life, such is the light that emanates from her live performances that it is one of those moments in existence that when you feel the overwhelming force of her heart beat against your soul, you know that you have not lived through an affair of important value, but that you have lived completely and utterly in the presence of greatness.

Tina Turner, Foreign Affair (2021 Deluxe Edition). Album Review. full post

(487 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Kate Reid, Caroline. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Some people’s final moments on Earth strike at the soul perhaps more that reason or logic would suggest that they should; the ones to whom the celebrity status does not do justice for the sheer scale of input they have put into stranger’s lives, the inspiration they install, the boundaries they demolish; it is those that we maybe mourn the loss of in a deeper way than we might otherwise believe, that strike a match of motivation in us to create something in their honour.

Kate Reid, Caroline. Single Review. full post

(450 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Ian McNabb, Utopian. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Sir Thomas More, whose remains lay the crypt inside The Tower of London, got it wrong when he spoke of the nation having the chance to grasp of being a society built on utopia, like his own relics, his ideas were based on flawed theoretical thinking, a belief that what was under the thumb of the tyrant King Henry VIII was, despite being an imagined island, the epitome of English society, that this utopia, like a new Jerusalem evoked in later centuries was one in which England deserved to be recognised as a force for good.

Ian McNabb, Utopian. Album Review. full post

(499 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Ellen Foley, Fighting Words. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Take a breath, and then another, be calm before you deliver those Fighting Words, for if you don’t mean them, if you are bluffing to the gallery and have no intention of following through with the warning, with upholding the principals to which you espouse, then those arguments and ready expressions of dispute won’t mean a thing.

Not every fighting stance has to be a confrontation, sometimes what comes across is the beauty of memory holding fast, holding back time, often it is the persuasion of the new release once again confirming the stature, the reputation, and the greatness of the individual.

Ellen Foley, Fighting Words. Album Review. full post

(467 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Andrew Howie, Pale White Branches. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Even the most resolute of performers who prefer to stand and create within their own company, must at some time feel the urge to collaborate. No person is an island, so the saying goes, and we learn, we find novel ideas, we have fun and enjoyment in the camaraderie of others, and in the end, even if we return to the studio alone, our thoughts will be of the time when those Pale White Branches on the tree of life showed the beauty of ornate arrangement and the flowers that come with teamwork and the cooperation of the seasons.

Andrew Howie, Pale White Branches. Album Review. full post

(402 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Kathryn Locke With Chodompa Music, LA. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Too often we are stifled by other people’s narrow parameters of what it means to learn, and whilst we may be proficient, competent, taught how to feel practised and trained, we are by no means creative, engaged or inspired to be original. Anyone, given time can learn the scales of Time, but it takes imagination and inventiveness to be an artist.

A teacher will write off a pupil for not sticking to the plan, but not realise that the gift of experimenting is what brings the tune together, by dismissing the outreach of the lesson the pupil instead becomes their own master, they are the ones who control the narrative.

Kathryn Locke With Chodompa Music, LA. Album Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Mike Zito, Resurrection. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The soundtrack of our life is a deeply individual and unique, we might have more than one play list, we could be listening to a whole variety of songs and special insightful tracks, we might even permit others to share in some of those moments where the guitar and the vocal capture the zeitgeist of personal interaction, but the final result is one that holds together what are as a person, as a distinctive, exceptional, irreplaceable human being.

Mike Zito, Resurrection. Album Review. full post

(387 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)