Category Archives: Music

Alison Krauss, Windy City. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There is no such thing as a short gust of music when it comes the phenomenally talented Alison Krauss, it is the bracing effect she has on your soul when she sings that is the true point of her gift and ability. There is a storm in those lungs waiting to break down barriers, smash away conceived ideas of how music is supposed to influence and guide you. It is a resonating sound of grandeur and positivity that the multi-award winning vocalist captures so well in her carefully selected selection of classic songs that make up the entrancing Windy City.

Alison Krauss, Windy City. Album Review. full post

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Imelda May, Life. Love. Flesh. Blood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It is only when you look into the eyes of a woman and see the girl that she used to be, do you notice how much Time has either enhanced her or taken its toll on the heart. There is no in between, the girl that was never stays in the same place, she is subject to more rigors and tests than many will ever realise and it is in her eyes that Life. Love. Flesh. Blood have all taken their fair bite or kissed her gently.

Imelda May, Life. Love. Flesh. Blood. Album Review. full post

(469 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Steve Logan, Wanted Alive. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Wanted Alive, to be found offering a small part of a healthy, giving and loving soul to those in need of help, who require assistance and those whose own life has taken a downturn because the music has left them, to be found and needed with all your hear, to be Wanted Alive is to feel human, important to someone and assured to put a hefty smile upon your face.

Steve Logan, Wanted Alive. Album Review. full post

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

Thunder, Rip It Up. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Rip It Up, tear the contracts of our lives apart, into a thousand pieces which in a light breeze dance like butterflies and fall like memories, Rip It Up, start again from scratch and in the blink of an eye you would find yourself in the midst of a revolution between the ears for the mind would argue what came before will always smash the modern apart.

Thunder, Rip It Up. Album Review. full post

(403 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Brothers Of Mine, The Answer. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Search long enough and you will find many answers, many truths in which the soul can hold onto and whisper to itself in the shadows that life has a way of persevering, that it can and must be ready for the moment when all that went before was just a prelude, a subtle introduction to the next stage of life. It is a tantalising prospect that we can grow enough and wise enough to see it flourish whilst we still breath freely and with youthful vigour.

Brothers Of Mine, The Answer. Single Review. full post

(359 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Ash Wilson, Broken Machine. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It is how you view the world that allows you to make art, if your sense of sight is obscured, if it is permanently finding ways to conceal some of the beauty that resides in even the dark shadows then your mind is not willing to be open, not wishing to take on the new and the exciting. Everything fresh should be given time, should be allowed the grace to be heard or felt as if it is the same experience as seeing a shooting star ride the heavens for the first time; without this sense of wonder we are doomed to be nothing more than scrap, humanity wasted, the archetypical Broken Machine.

Ash Wilson, Broken Machine. Album Review. full post

(443 words, 1 image, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Neville Staple, Return Of Judge Roughneck. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To feel the beat you have to allow yourself to be infected by the strength and depth of the musician and the artist, from them the music has to dominate their every breathing moment, from them the infectious delivery has to insurmountable, it has to consume and devastate, it has to be magnificent. If it fails to raise the heart rate, if it doesn’t install a sense of drama or unrequited love in your very being then throw it away, consign it to the forlorn pile and let it be judged harshly.

Neville Staple, Return Of Judge Roughneck. Album Review. full post

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

Sally Barker, Ghost Girl. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Whilst the caged bird may be fed and watered, given a safe haven in times of storms and squalls, it nevertheless remains a shadow of the creature it could be, that it should be, a phantom with full plumage, a colourful but ghoulish reminder that cages do not work, they flatter but ultimately the enforced imprisonment is too much to behold.

Sally Barker, Ghost Girl. Album Review. full post

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

Bolshy, Reap The Storm. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is nothing like the sound of youthful anger wrapped up in the song of passion, it gives hope, it offers a sense of wellbeing that no matter what, and for all the denigration they often suffer due to narrow minded comments which seek to detract them, so much of what they have to say is vital, fundamental to our continued security as a society. It is easy to be critical of those coming through, it is effortless to communicate everything we may believe to be wrong with their outlook but it is they who Reap The Storm, they who take all the punishment of words and verbal mismanagement.

Bolshy, Reap The Storm. Album Review. full post

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

Todd O’Keefe, Uptown. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The working musician seems to always be around, playing away to the crowd but never being recognised fully for their achievements or prowess unless they step into the limelight and take on the responsibility of opening up their heart to an audience that might prefer them to be in the shadows.

Los Angeles resident Todd O’Keefe has had the good fortune to work with some of the world’s greats including the indomitable Ray Davies, Elvis Costello and Beck, it is in that chance to express in what is quite obviously a sublime talent just itching to be set free and communicate his own ideas and musical designs. It is an itching that sees a realisation scratch in the tremendous album Uptown.

Todd O’Keefe, Uptown. Album Review. full post

(438 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)