Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
All electric, all sublime, the natural home of heavy rock, of the open growling riff and the warm open heart of the vocals that resonate the power of Midland’s Rock, more notably and aptly, the history, the echoing boom of the Black Country; all is in the hands of The Bad Flowers as they release their formidable single Thunder Child.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
They always promise Better Times, they will tell you that on the horizon there is a gigantic slab of jam, several spoons and enough Cornish clotted cream to go with it; that those times are always worth waiting for. The trouble is with better times, somehow they end up like a routine from The Morecombe and Wise Show, one shoe never fits, is often not the right shoe in a pair and that collection of spoons is really knives ready to be plunged in the back and the clotted cream is anything but Cornish.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Friends and loved ones sometimes have a way of sending you into exile, that you have no right to be where you are, that your opinion does not matter, that your dreams are nothing but dust caught in an updraft; it often takes those that you only hear over the wild speakers, those that find a way to install a state of kindness in even the bitterest wind and chained grievance, for those that offer Exile & Grace are to be saluted, for they are the ones that set you free.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The artist sees the blank canvas and does not merely paint the soul experiences; only the home decorator can and should feel unaffected by what appears before them. When it comes to any art form you surely should have been affected by the narration of life around you before committing to the world your own story, not the straight lines of a single brush destined for the skirting board, but the full on light show of a whole series of brush strokes that are keen to spill, to blend, to merge and make the most fascinating Aurora in the canvas sky.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Many shy away from the raw and the passionate, they see the allure but they cannot find it in themselves to feel it in their souls; perhaps fearful or troubled by what could be let loose should they delve too deep into the fire below. The raw is not to be shied away from, it is not to be excused and passed over in favour of something that has been cooked and over produced beyond its initial vision. Sometimes all it needs is its own identity and its own sense of self; it is a vision offered by Mike Brookfield in his uninhibited second album, Brookfield.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
You can stand in front of the Mona Lisa as it resides deep underground in Paris and you can marvel in the perfection, the composition, and you can be haunted by Time, by the sheer scope of history and the insignificance of what is shadowing the piece before you and you are struck by the beauty, by the sheer audacity of one human being’s attempt to capture something exquisite, a slice of art that is permanent and captivating. You can do all that but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you think it is the most interesting or truly dynamic of works; that it is so beautiful and evocative but ultimately it is not as good as the brain or the heart desires it to be.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It is one of those great quirks of musical nature that tease out every so often, that when people think of the great synth-pop bands of the 80s, they either naturally gravitate towards those that have come out of Yorkshire or even from down in Essex, the richness of the those particular bands has been, and arguably will always be forever be, enshrined in popular music history, and rightly so.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Words are important, beyond that, they are critical, the way we are with others, words can signify everything, even in the smallest sentence, in the most casual of thoughts, words are like bombs or bandages, they can tear apart the world without a moment’s thought or they can heal, even unintentionally, they can break through the psyche of a pre-conditioned thought and make that person’s outlook so much sweeter.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
There is no mystery, no sleight of hand or conjuring trick visible, intended or perceived when you listen to Jared James Nichols perform. The appeal, the dedication and the captivating are all too real, all too genuine to be anything but truth wrapped up in fingers that play with the authority of the Blues Masters of old and the mind that won’t stop playing with notes and lyrics; if it must be seen as magic, then it must be dark, that ol’ Black Magic which even Faustus would shy away from.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Too often do we believe that what is not seen to be producing or adding to the bloated slug like economy is worthless or undeserving of allowing the senses to be commanded by its appearance or its quality. It is a point of rancour and heartbreak that nature and art has to be adding a series of zeros to a number in which to be considered fruitful, that it must add to the bank balance before it can be seen as anything more than indulgence.