Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10
At one time it was one of the biggest music labels on the planet, it spawned the idea of power and elegance all wrapped up in one hybrid motion and the hits kept coming and the music kept on playing. Like Detroit itself, the sound of Motown is unfashionable to many now, the factories, the people, the abundant sound, in many ways a former glory in which dreams were once made and in which thousands of artists have revelled in.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The modern world at times is so frantic that the sight of a single flower poking its head above the procession of weeds and moss encrusted pavements is sometimes treated with derision and sarcasm. A sign that the world in its infinite wisdom should carry on producing such moments and not give in the easy chance to score a point against a fellow human being, is often scorned and deflected as such and it makes for a sad tale of forgotten past and adds colour to the sensitive and profound.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It was a place steeped in debauchery and sin, a location of vice and intrigue and in which many deeds were committed in the name of notoriety; a society in which the powerful and mighty could “Do what thou wilt”. Yet for The Hellfire Club in which the sounds of majesty appear in their latest album Songs For The Fallen Stars, the motto of “Do what we can for you” would be more appropriate.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Thirty years on from the opening salvo and the declaration of war on British and American dominance on Heavy Metal, thirty years since the Walls of Jericho came tumbling down under the pressure of guitar riffs being played as if Joshua’s trumpet had been misinformed of its exact duty in life, the pumpkins of Helloween are reborn once more in arguably the band’s finest and certainly critically advanced album since The Keeper of The Seven Keys Part II.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The world revolves around both, one nourishes the heart, the other allegedly makes the Earth spin at a peculiar angle and warps the judgement of anybody who gets to close it. Whether it is Blood or Brass that floats your boat, to The Rainbreakers it is most defiantly Blood Not Brass that makes music flow with astounding pressure and the white heat of the raw and unadulterated flood through the unguarded eardrums.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The mournful cry of a lost soul in the darkness is soon replaced with the almost sheer joy of a set of instruments let loose upon the mind, for the Young Benjamins, Less Argue is that place between weathering the storm and cursing the tempest as she swells and fires water bombs of destruction at your ever despairing life, and the warmth felt as the sun fight back and warms up the small island you have been cowering upon as you cling onto what remains of that soul.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
No matter how lonely you feel in life, cut off from the day to day and the sensation of being a wreck in your harbour, it arguably cannot compare to the feeling of thoughtful resentment felt by the knights of the sea, the sailors and their muses that keep them sane when the ocean tries to break their spirits. It is a feeling that is perfectly captured by John Jenkins and his debut single, Sweet Delphine.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The past may well be another country but at times the borders between then and now shift and blur so much that what was once the highest form of art soon comes back to entrance once more. Like a woman in the flourish of youth at Court being presented in front of a gaping, slack jawed crowd and then returning 40 years later and still able to command authority with wit, guile and brains and having the same crowd dance to her tune, the past comes back with frightening agile speed to ensnare and beguile us when we least expect it.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Stripped back, raw, uncovered, exposed and all the while the image of wonderful demeanour and a smile wider than the River Mersey and just as deep and meaningful. It is the only way to think of Alun Parry, one of Liverpool’s true Folk legends and a man who puts himself out there to make sure other’s voices are heard, a gentleman who can pen a song that break your heart into a thousand lonely pieces but who can then rebuild it stronger and able to withstand the next knock on the door and the size nine bullying its way across town.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
For anybody who was in the New York area in the early 1990s and got the hear the seminal live grooves of the album Pocketful of Kryptonite as well as the righteous tones of Blues songs that were ahead of their time by around a decade, the Spin Doctors were a class act to watch and listen to.