Category Archives: Music

Kris Drever & Éamonn Coyne. Mareel E.P. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

 

Never let it be said that in all parts of the Scottish and Irish main lands and their resident islands that there is not spirit of independence running through its mighty veins and boldly pumping heart. Even if the question upon everybody’s lips is of a different type of individuality, of a changed outlook and striking out on your own like an 20-something year old finally declaring its intention to move into its own apartment, the spirit and culture was always there and remain so everywhere you are willing to take a peek into.

Kris Drever & Éamonn Coyne. Mareel E.P. E.P. Review. full post

(392 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Karen O, Crush Songs. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Everybody has a first crush, perhaps even lots of them, that moment in which the stars seem to explode and swirl with the force of a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. When the pain and desire of wanting to be with somebody so much is like receiving a blow to the head and in which months, even days later you admonish yourself for feeling the prize berk and abject fool that you feel you have become.  Poetry gets written, often as painful as the first fleeting glimpse in which you saw your crush glance your way and in which smitten may as well be tattooed upon your forehead forever.

Karen O, Crush Songs. Album Review. full post

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Deacon Blue, A New Home. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time has arguably finally seen sense and allowed Deacon Blue the standing that was taken away after runaway success in the 1980s and 90s. For if the last release that the band bought out, the very cool The Hipsters, was a sign of intent, then A New Home is something in which to be proud of, not just for the listener soaking up the graphic-like story-telling and soon to be popular songs that will be broadcast and played live for their loyal audiences, but for the band also, for A New Home is something in where fresh and exciting adventures begin and exploration is pre-requisite.

Deacon Blue, A New Home. Album Review. full post

(445 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

New Model Army, Between Wine and Blood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It could all come down to consistency for some, but in the end is there much difference Between Wine and Blood?

For New Model Army, the difference may be down to taste but what they have done with this double C.D. package is something that captures the very best of both worlds. Six brand new songs, six reasons in which to cheer the original work of Justin Sullivan, Michael Dean, Dean White, Marshall Gill and Ceri Monger, six songs in which reminded the listener of the past, specifically around the time of Thunder and Consolation but also in which carries the extremely good work that appeared on the Between Dog and Wolf album.

New Model Army, Between Wine and Blood. Album Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Winter In Eden, Court Of Conscience. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is a quiet solemnity and gravitas in the frozen landscape that winter offers Humanity but which is shamefully overlooked by modern society in its constant pursuit of the need to be seen to be productive, productive in the disturbingly wrong way, not the industry of creative endeavour in which a field stuffed with snow captures the bleating sheep unawares and provides the captured moment for the ever present photographer. Nor in the way that a sudden snowfall on a busy city can bring it grinding to a halt causing people to stay indoors and forcing them to rest a while, perhaps talk or at least wrestle with their conscious on how Winter was at one time a chance to take stock and to mourn those lost before the snow, not to sell stock and forget to mourn the passing of time.

Winter In Eden, Court Of Conscience. Album Review. full post

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

Rob Jones & Rob White, Thirty. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Some acts just exude a sense of calm proportion to the daily grind, to the stuttering headache caused by the constant bombardment of noise that comes out of every office block, tin pan alley and thoroughfare. The insanity that a shrill voice at the end of a telephone or the damaging bluster of those who see the price in everything but for the life of them cannot see the value of a moment of gentleness that is worth more than whatever they earn over the course of a day.

Rob Jones & Rob White, Thirty. Album Review. full post

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

HammerFall, (r)Evolution. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It almost feels as if there an element of greed attached to the way the Scandinavian countries have dominated the world of Metal in recent times, greed or perhaps something more profound, something that would have been seen as verging on the edge of musical insanity only three decades ago. If the late 70s saw the emergence of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, then the epoch that we live in, this time of feeling of global communication but complete disconnection from the way we live our fleeting lives should be seen as the time of a new dominant force, the second Viking Invasion, a lot more Metal, and the only pillaging is that of the U.K.’s and America’s ever loosening grip on the title of the home of the genre.

HammerFall, (r)Evolution. Album Review. full post

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

Rachel Newton, Changeling. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Folk tales have immense power, they somehow have a way of burrowing below the skin and becoming part of the fabric of the inner workings of the mind. They nestle at the heart of worry, of being something that somehow Humanity is susceptible to other worldly influences and transformation, the trick of the fairy folk is the way they can steal a baby and leave one of their own in its place causes suspicion and distrust. Whether in the Cornish tradition of Mên-an-Tol or other Gaelic influences, the Changeling is something that captures the fertile imagination.

Rachel Newton, Changeling. Album Review. full post

(415 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Mudcats Blues Trio. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Sheffield is famous for many things, especially its music. From the Human League to Pulp and all points in between and all those to come after, the silver runs through the veins of its people like a smelting pot of finely cast talent and bronzed off honesty.

Mudcats Blues Trio. Album Review. full post

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

Beverley Craven Change Of Heart. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

No matter what, fans of Beverley Craven will always have the near perfect image; the sound of a beautiful and sensuous voice embraced so hard around their memories that not even a fairly average album could shake their belief in her. Which is good, for Beverly Craven is one of those artists that you want to love, that you want her to take you by the hand and lead you down many roads and personal alleyways in which have made her music so enticingly intimate and friendly down the years.

Beverley Craven Change Of Heart. Album Review. full post

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