Category Archives: Music

Cody McCarver, The Lord’s Will. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

No matter what you think of the subject matter to found within Cody McCarver’s latest soul bearing offering, The Lord’s Will, there can be no denying that musically it is a great listen. Regardless of what your views on religion are, your views on certain aspects of faith and conviction are; what devotion you may bring to the table in offer, there are at times moments in life when to hear somebody pour their heart into producing something so delicate can be a little humbling. Whether you believe in a power beyond your recognition is not up for debate but you sometimes do have to listen to somebody else view or way of life to understand that your own particular road is not seen the same from even those you may call friends or lovers.

Cody McCarver, The Lord’s Will. Album Review. full post

(425 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

The New Line, Can’t Hold The Wheel. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Not everything in life needs to be shouted, screamed at the pace of a jet fighter roaring over an oil field with soldiers protecting the peace underneath or the rush and exhilaration of a football championship decider. Not everything needs the roar, sometimes the quietest word can grip hold of life more eloquently than the damnation of a thousand rhetoric speeches of hate can ever achieve.

The New Line, Can’t Hold The Wheel. Album Review. full post

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

Robert Cray, In My Soul. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The healthy resonance of a guitar is sometimes the only sound you need to hear to understand in how every instant the world can be both beautiful and devastatingly sad at the same time. For Robert Cray that singular echo coming through the airwaves is one that haunts, chills and pleases from opening track till the time when The C.D. has been placed regretfully back onto the rack. His latest album In My Soul is no different.

Robert Cray, In My Soul. Album Review. full post

(349 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Mark Poutney, Mark One. Album Review.

First published by Liverpool Acoustic on April 5th 2014.

Rating 9/10

Some performers ooze class without even having to play a cord or a single note. Of course when they do put together the start of a new song that you just know is going to capture the imagination and playful tug at the heart strings the only decent thing to do, the only courteous action to take is to wallow in the core of something either incredible or beautiful or…if you are really fortunate, both.

Mark Poutney, Mark One. Album Review. full post

(365 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

John Bassett, Unearth. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

For a musician who creates the most beautiful sounding compositions with KingBathmat, the chance to really let go and release an album of his own work must have always been nagging at the back of his head and now John Bassett has the chance to impress completely with his debut album Unearth.

Impressed might be too strong a word to bandy around, it gives rise to the thought of confetti being thrown at a wedding or celebration or the first sight of fireworks that cling to the midnight sky high above Sydney as the clocks click over into a new year, perhaps captivated and enthralled would be better, for that is the feeling you get when listening to Unearth for the first and subsequent times.

John Bassett, Unearth. Album Review. full post

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

KynchinLay, Drink Me. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

For those of a certain disposition who still find music on the radio in which to drop everything and sit down in a mind boggled sigh of exultation, KynchinLay’s new E.P. Drink Me is a remembrance of days when the likes of Tommy Vance or the great John Peel would play magician and startle you with a set of songs so good that you just knew the world, despite its woes, would carry on. For surely the Universe would not destroy the planet just yet; especially when the vast majority haven’t had the pleasure of taking in one more amazing track.

KynchinLay, Drink Me. E.P. Review. full post

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

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, Too Many Roads. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There could well be Too Many Roads for a person to walk along, so many distractions; so many reasons in which the straight path you choose from A to B means that occasionally that deviation offered you goes untouched, unsighted and the pleasure unheard.

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, Too Many Roads. Album Review. full post

(398 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Brasy, Brasy Live. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Life is about discovery at all times, the moment it doesn’t then either you have become the modern epitome of a fulfilled Renaissance person or more likely life has ceased to be one in which you crave and the only journey you take is between work, television and bed.

The rich harmonies of Polish group Brassy though are something to take great cheer from and with their stunning album, Brasy Live, the journey can take an unexpected twist and causing a deviation which makes you look at the scenery in a much more positive way.

Brasy, Brasy Live. Album Review. full post

(476 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Christina Skjolberg, Come and Get It. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The U.K. holds Joanne Shaw Taylor very close to its Rock/Blues heart, America does the same with Beth Hart and seemingly from out of the cultured wilds of Norway, Christina Skjolberg is ready to cause the same natural sentiments across Scandinavia and beyond and if her debut album Come and Get it is anything to go by.

Christina Skjolberg, Come and Get It. Album Review. full post

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

Sonata Artica, Pariah’s Child. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It used to be noted that an album must be worth at least listening to if the band had obviously spent money on the cover. The use of dramatic and in some cases exceptional pieces of art that would adorn the sleeve was a good indication that the group or artists were proud to have something memorable on the front rather than a picture of the band, something in which to capture the whole essence of what was to come. Marillion, Pink Floyd and Magnum always knew how to employ the method and now the eighth album by Sonata Artica, the wild and untamed Pariah’s Child joins that list of recordings that backs up the theory.

Sonata Artica, Pariah’s Child. Album Review. full post

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