Category Archives: Music

Justin Currie, Lower Reaches. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a delicate nature that resides in even the stoniest of men. It might take the famed Heracles to make an additional scrawl on his list of labours in which to prise it out, but it will be found eventually.

One such person who has no need for Heracles or his famed strength is Del Amitri’s Justin Currie. The heart is not just on his sleeve, it seems to encompass everything he does and whether live on stage or recording music in the studio for his fans, the sleeve, the arm and the shirt are one big emotional scratching post for his haunting and very beautiful lyrics. Perhaps this has never been more true, certainly as a solo artist, than in his latest album release, Lower Reaches.

Justin Currie, Lower Reaches. Album Review. full post

(422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Erica Nockalls, EN2. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Falling in love is easy, there are far too many sonnets and composed teenage angst written poems to suggest anything but. However staying in love, finding new ways in which the artists endearing affection and sheer honesty grapples with the heart and the mind in some sort of tantric wrestling match is a harder proposition for many in a disposable world to understand. However for Erica Nockalls, the maestro of the violin and arguably one of the finest players in Britain today, wrestling with the listener’s thoughts and musical desires is not on the agenda, not physically anyway, and in her second solo album EN2 the person cowering under the weight of uncertain times ahead is relieved by the undulating swell of string and bow and angry but beautifully paced and sincerely thought anger.

Erica Nockalls, EN2. Album Review. full post

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

Skillet, Vital Signs. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Just when the outlook may appear to be festering, perhaps wallowing in some self imposed drudgery, along comes a group capable of shaking the apathy and laziness that had crept into all corners of an American once legendary genre, out and delivering a sermon on the Rock mount decrying the dangers of letting it be lost to a generation.

Skillet, Vital Signs. Album Review. full post

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

The Peace Collective, Altogether Now. Single Review.

There used to be a buzz of excitement around this time of year. Away from the thought of inedible sprouts that seemed to only be placed upon the plate with frightening regularity, the Queen’s speech having to be watched because an elderly relative once saw Her Majesty dangle a gloved hand out somewhere in Weston–Super-Mare in 1965, and the usual fights that would lead to doors slamming throughout the land because someone didn’t want to enter the Christmas spirit, one thing could unite the family and be the cause of more arguments and that was who would be Christmas No. 1.

The Peace Collective, Altogether Now. Single Review. full post

(782 words, estimated 3:08 mins reading time)

Jonas Knutsson And Johan Norberg, Norrland. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is nothing better than being lost. Whether it is in thought, the moment, in Time or perhaps in the physical world of an abundant forest, being lost can be quite liberating. Once the panic subsides, once the feeling of dread of the unknown passes by, the taste of the forest can come alive and the chance to revel in an adventure can become apparent. After all, the only ones who ever truly lost are those that don’t want to be found.

Jonas Knutsson And Johan Norberg, Norrland. Album Review. full post

(353 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

The Whereabouts, I Don’t Care. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It seems such an interminable age since the position vacant sign went up on the door, group of young energetic lads from Ireland who can actually play decent Rock and Roll and who has rhythm engrained throughout their souls. The call becomes a shout, a bellow and an unremitting plea and like Manchester City in the mid-1990s in search of a manager who actually could do the same fine job that Peter Reid was on the verge of creating, the appeal seems to have kept falling upon deaf ears…until the listener finds a band from County Cavan has been plugging away and The Whereabouts make introduce themselves with honour.

The Whereabouts, I Don’t Care. Album Review. full post

(518 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

The Truce, E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It is remembered as a point in time in which Humanity gained a little perspective in a world that had gone completely and utterly insane. The leap of faith in which hundreds of soldiers, who only hours before had been shooting at each other in a conflict that none of them truly understood the reason for which it was being fought, met in the middle of a scrap of Earth called No-Man’s Land and declared a truce that would have lasting repercussions and the small smile of peace installed in the hearts of generations to come. The Truce was the moment in which peace broke out and man put down his weapon against all that had gone before him.

The Truce, E.P. Review. full post

(538 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Kenneth J. Nash, The Fall Of Eden. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To tumble from grace is to find yourself! There is a certain freedom attached to being so low that the view from above can be an inspiration. If you have everything then you are too afraid to lose it and The Fall Of Eden is a long and bumpy road in which there is heartache, pain and grief, but there is also the chance of redemption in liberty. It is a redemption and liberty in which Kenneth J. Nash captures exquisitely in The Fall Of Eden.

Kenneth J. Nash, The Fall Of Eden. Album Review. full post

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

Boo Hewerdine, My Name In Brackets (The Best of Boo Hewerdine & The Bible). Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A gentle demeanour is never lost in life. The soothing tones of a musician seemingly at peace with themselves is never truly overshadowed by the storm that rampages around them, the squall and the rough tidal surges that drown out the less romantic find ways to inspire the artistically gifted. For Boo Hewerdine if the squall and blizzards of life affect him, then his music doesn’t show it, not outwardly possibly but like all great artists there is something of the dark attached within the moving, almost sensual lyrics that command the same attention as coming across the flowing beast that is the River Nile for the first time.

Boo Hewerdine, My Name In Brackets (The Best of Boo Hewerdine & The Bible). Album Review. full post

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

Supertramp, Crime Of The Century. 40th Anniversary Re-issue, Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The wheels of Time constantly turn but they never seem to move very far from certain seminal points that repeat themselves over and over again. When it comes to nostalgia and thinking back to how much Time has irrevocably altered and magnified certain pieces of art, then the re-master, re-issue or just plain re-discovery of a lost epic is enough to make Time smile and make its heart go a little faster.

Supertramp, Crime Of The Century. 40th Anniversary Re-issue, Album Review. full post

(844 words, estimated 3:23 mins reading time)