Category Archives: Music

Jared James Nichols, Highwayman EP. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

William Harrison Ainsworth, the creator of the most famous Highwayman of all the dashing Dick Turpin, could not himself have come up with a more dashing hero than resides in the musician Jared James Nichols.

Life on the road is perhaps the pinnacle of a musician’s daily life. Away from the possibility of awards, of the dedication of the fans buying singles, E.Ps and albums, playing for a different crowd every night, performing for a crowd with energy to give and respect to unfold, an audience that at the end of the day surrenders their wares, perhaps their souls and certainly their time to by a figure just out of reach but who leaves them hopefully with something more important, hope.

Jared James Nichols, Highwayman EP. E.P. Review. full post

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

Kim Simmonds And Savoy Brown, The Devil To Pay. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A writer, a poet or the scribe of combined lyrics and sweated out notes should never stop searching for a truth, should never allow the music that floats in their head to become stifled or desolate, to become as barren and featureless as the deserts or as bland as deep black space when there is no cosmos to stare in open-mouthed wonder at. The music should never be seen as suffocating or unbearable to be around, it should never consume to the point of being bled dry and if does, if it should manage to challenge this and win through, then it is time to either call it a day or walk away for a while and regroup.

Kim Simmonds And Savoy Brown, The Devil To Pay. Album Review. full post

(414 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Tom Jones, Long Lost Suitcase. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It might prove a stroke of good fortune in the end, to be let go from what amounts to arguably the highlight of cerebral boredom for many, listening to televised Karaoke aimed at those to whom many will be forgotten and dismissed in the search for vanity in the three or four minutes it takes to sing a song. For true mastery, for longevity and absolute superstardom, Tom Jones was and more than likely will always be, a true voice in which music just turns to velvet within. If being released from a television show can have a golden glint attached to it, then the Welsh maestro’s latest album Long Lost Suitcase is a room full of liberated bullion.

Tom Jones, Long Lost Suitcase. Album Review. full post

(433 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Queensrÿche, Condition Hüman. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Everything in nature eventually divides, certainly at the base level where cells learn that division means growth, that a single celled organism just doesn’t have the same power as one that has two, four or millions of cells wrapped within its casing and hard shell like appearance. A single celled person would just be unfeasible, the state in which it would exist would be a nightmare, and like a band that finds the way is blocked by different directions and the taste of animosity that hangs in the air like acrid static electricity, the way forward is to split; after all it is only the condition of any human after all.

Queensrÿche, Condition Hüman. Album Review. full post

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

Ashley Reaks And Joe Hakim, Cultural Thrift. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Culture is under threat. Art is being intimidated by the powers that be that suggest in not so secretive tones that the human experience of being alive and feeling all that comes with it, every aspect of poetry, the paintbrush upon silken canvas and the melody that runs through the head, is nothing, not worth a damn compared to the economic slug like festering opportunity of toiling the day away to earn a different dream, one of consumerism madness.

Ashley Reaks And Joe Hakim, Cultural Thrift. Album Review. full post

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

Killing Joke, Pylon. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

There should always be a connection when listening to music, a growing bond and linking association that supports the structure between the soul and the brain; a link that is closely guarded by the music being entertained by both human facets. Sometimes though the link can go wrong, whether the fault of the band for being too clever for their own good and devising an album that doesn’t come across as being nourishment, instead being seen as a mark of audience condoning, or on the part of the listener who half way through the aural experience finds themselves daydreaming of their first musical love, the link for whatever it is worth dies.

Killing Joke, Pylon. Album Review. full post

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

Chris Laterzo, West Coast Sound. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision 8.5/10

The road ahead of us at times can seem long and arduous, it can resonate with the sound of the bleak or be thrilling with the view point of the triumphant; it is the road of discontent or the avenue of pleasurable ease, the road that no matter what keeps giving, it’s no wonder that Kerouac was obsessed with it.

It is a road that Chris Laterzo has travelled and if anyone has the ability to show how the highway of life should be traversed with style, an overwhelming amount of quality and a humility that is gratifyingly abundant then Mr. Laterzo has it all to offer and in his fifth studio album West Coast Sound, the offering is one that cannot and should not be ignored.

Chris Laterzo, West Coast Sound. Album Review. full post

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

Federal Charm, Across The Divide. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Following on from their debut self titled album, Federal Charm have returned in the same dynamic style with the release of the just as blistering, just as deep down and Rock-filled exuberance called Across The Divide.

In the short time between albums there has been a shift, not a great one, nothing that might be noticed by the casual observer of such things but nonetheless a shift that is discernible and hugely agreeable. A change in the way that a very good band can be heard and the attitude of really hammering out the song with style and authority; this is the divide that has been breached and taken control of and it is worth every cent, dime, penny and pound to hear the result.

Federal Charm, Across The Divide. Album Review. full post

(395 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

The Southbound Attic Band, The Willows Suite. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is a tale so beloved that it has had generations of children, and many adults, reading with the intensity of love and interest and finding that nature is truly a wondrous and bountiful place in which to find inspiration and joy from. Kenneth Grahame’s beautifully observed allegory and part reference to the English Pastoral is captured with vivid imagination in the book The Wind in the Willows and the characters are one of the few from that period that beneath the skin of a society that is now almost unrecognisable and one that beats in the heart and resonates with a yearning to return to simpler times.

The Southbound Attic Band, The Willows Suite. Album Review. full post

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

Squeeze, Cradle To The Grave. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are not many bands that can make the ordinary extraordinary, that take a minute of a life and turn it into a whole progression of infinite possibility and yet still be down grounded and down to Earth enough for all who hear it, who understand the significance of it all.

For Squeeze, the words have long-held significance; they have proposed an urban romance since their first initial days of one of London’s New Wave and one that hasn’t been tainted by the spectre of time. It is the words and overwhelming playful music that brings the band back into the spotlight in some great fashion with their first studio album with brand new songs in many years, the gloriously enjoyable Cradle To The Grave.

Squeeze, Cradle To The Grave. Album Review. full post

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