Category Archives: Music

The Royal Southern Brotherhood, Heartsoulblood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

No limits, that’s all you can ever truly hope for in life. To be able to live with the knowledge that all that you have done is all that you could physically do; that there was no quarter given, no hidden page left unread and sequel available as every possible plot point and character development had been written in to the life story. Records and music is like that also, except that where the blood sweat and tears of one album runs deep into the furthest recess of the heart, there is always room for more of the same, or even a deviation from the artistic norm, of a second “difficult” album.

The Royal Southern Brotherhood, Heartsoulblood. Album Review. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Jules Carter Trio, Done Misbehaving. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If you think you don’t like the Blues, if the thought of a century worth of music is not for you and that Robert Johnson is just a name that holds no fascination then the best thing to do would be to start at the beginning of Jules Carter Trio’s album, Done Misbehaving, and throwing every single odd piece of prejudice out of the window and fall in love with a set of songs that just cry out for attention.

Jules Carter Trio, Done Misbehaving. Album Review. full post

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

Uriah Heep, Outsider. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Regardless of when you may have first come across Uriah Heep, it is an argument worth having that they have been unfortunately been forgotten by many as one of the pioneers of British Heavy Rock and part of The Progressive movement.

Influential on many and yet the popularity of Mick Box’s band has never really attained, especially in later years the popularity they so deserved aside from having many totally enamoured with a couple of early 1970s albums including the superb Salisbury.  Whether the latest release by Uriah Heep, the elegant sounding Outsider, can change that perhaps remains to be seen but in a world that allows certain acts that have gone on reality television shows to garner a following, then surely Uriah Heep can have another sojourn in the unknown world of popular Rock music.

Uriah Heep, Outsider. Album Review. full post

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

Vintage Blue, No Going Back. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Chicago just happens to be one of the great American cities, full of wonder, a sense of heritage and iconoclasm having been showered upon it as one of the Great Lakes feeds its natural hunger and gives the city its cold stirring breath in winter and baked beautiful days in summer. It has been the resting place of American Mob culture, of iconic films and even more iconic bands, for example the truly distinguished band that bares the cities name. To the North Canada, to the East New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Boston and nothing rivals it as hub of industry and humanity till you reach the southern shores of the country. It is truly a remarkable city. From out of that place in which Lake Michigan freezes and drives an icy blast comes a smashing new band, Vintage Blue, and their album No Going Back.

Vintage Blue, No Going Back. Album Review. full post

(514 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Jack White, Lazaretto. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It can’t be a coincidence, no matter how good The White Stripes were, and they were rather first-rate for the vast majority of songs that they produced, that Jack White has just got better and better as a musician and lyric writer since those long gone halcyon days. His latest solo album, Lazaretto, is one of such quality that it is hard to ignore. The American Rock/Country/Celtic vibe hybrid is a fascinating delve into the mind of one of America’s real musical icons of the last 15 years that at times you have to wonder if the man will ever bother writing an autobiography, for everything you think you want to know is played out in the lyrics of his enormous body of work.

Jack White, Lazaretto. Album Review. full post

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

Chris Bevington And Friends. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Blues seems to bring out the very best in musicians, it also seems to the one genre in which many a talented artist seems comfortable in letting themselves go and placing themselves in the multitude of songs from its illustrious past. Jazz constantly re-invents itself, Progressive Rock is so utterly unique, Heavy Metal only really covered by the completely dedicated and pop, at times seems to let anything go, Blues however appeals in its homage to the past.

Chris Bevington And Friends. Album Review. full post

(373 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Risa Hall, New York Nights. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Some album names just give off the aura of invincibility, of the passion of the place or city they are emulating or trying to evoke. American cities pretty much have the upper hand in this compared much of Europe in terms of 20th and 21st Century Western culture. Scarborough in England certainly captures a state of mind with a certain generation and various places in London can tickle the imagination but American cities jump down the throat of the listener and New York City perhaps arguably jumps further and lands harder than any other city on Earth.

Risa Hall, New York Nights. E.P. Review. full post

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

Brother Firetribe, Diamond In The Firepit. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

The shape of things to come and a hell of a nod to the British Rock scene of the 1980s in an intensity breathing, fist punching, engine ready to combust and an energetically dismissive of the some of the pomp that parades itself in the rock banner of recent years. It seems that if you really want to rock, ask a band from the Scandinavian set of countries and if you want to rock hard then ask Finland’s Brother Firetribe.

Brother Firetribe, Diamond In The Firepit. Album Review. full post

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

Paddy Clegg, Head In The Clouds. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are many reasons in which to enjoy Paddy Clegg’s Head In The Cloud E.P.  Aside from it sounding like a well-oiled Formula One engine, purring with anticipation of the battle ahead and yet creative enough to avoid every pitfall placed before it by those out to do young musicians down, it also has the musical brain musing in what the young man sounds like. Or rather who he sounds like. By the end of the E.P. the dawning realisation of the comparison will explode in the head as if watching a series of Van Gogh paintings come surreally to life; that Paddy Clegg, the young Liverpool lad, has all the early hallmarks of a young, unpolished, unrefined and wonderfully cultured anger hanging in the back of the voice John Lennon.

Paddy Clegg, Head In The Clouds. E.P. Review. full post

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

Sue Hedges, Outta Party. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The person who said you cannot do it all, had either never met Liverpool song writer Sue Hedges or was perhaps so embittered by life, that they were doing all they could do to put anybody off trying their best and enjoying fruits of many labours.

Sue Hedges, Outta Party. Album Review. full post

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