Category Archives: Music

Jacquelyn Hynes, Silver And Wood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9 1/2/10

Silver and Wood might be Jacquelyn Hynes’ debut solo album but there is no denying just how tremendous it is and like a rare bird should be left to roam the Earth sending its goodwill throughout.

The sound of folk but with the twist and feel of being somewhere else in time, of being displaced and in the hands of a woman adept at causing music to sound both sentimental, dramatic and pleasingly cynical is perhaps the finest example you will be ever to say you have listened to for many years. It is female heroism personified but with the tragedy of having met the unfortunate victim and mourning her loss.

Jacquelyn Hynes, Silver And Wood. Album Review. full post

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

Joe Bonamassa And Beth Hart, Live In Amsterdam. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa are like twin orbiting stars, the immense fire raging beneath one feeds across to the other in some sort of celestial storm and the warmth received grows in intensity and the process is reversed, a dance between two stars, both pulsating, both energetic and for whom if one was to be pulled away, circulated out of its chosen trajectory, it’s hard to imagine the other’s fire being seen as bright.

Joe Bonamassa And Beth Hart, Live In Amsterdam. Album Review. full post

(408 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Laurence Jones, Temptation. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Not since a certain young Joe Bonamassa stood on the stage for his debut performance has anything sounded this good for the very first time.

Laurence Jones is a revelation, a man who has left the murky world of desire and flown straight headlong and true into an album of incredible depth and feeling that the listener maybe forgiven for wondering at what point did they cross a boundary between fact and dreamlike narrative fiction. The lure of lute in a medieval poets hands was surely just as enticing as they made their way across the land thrilling all with stories, tales and fables, now for the 21st Century Laurence Jones entices and persuades easily as he steps out from behind the line of Blues know how and announces himself completely with the album Temptation.

Laurence Jones, Temptation. Album Review. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Ian Prowse, Who Loves Ya Baby? Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

In a city that has produced so many voices, so many ideas and whom all of which have added greatly to the cultural importance and passionate stand against conformity and the bland, Ian Prowse certainly stands out as late 20th and early 21st Century hero. His voice and hand on heart declarations has led to many following his footsteps and as he proves time and time every week at his the ever popular Monday Night Club, the voice cannot, nor will ever be, silenced.

Ian Prowse, Who Loves Ya Baby? Album Review. full post

(482 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Stark, Stories from the Underground. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The reminder of folly is never too far away from the people of the South coast town of Brighton minds as they are reminded each day of the beauty of the sea that washes over the pebbled beach and threatens on a bad day to take the boats moored up towards the wall that hugs the front and its sense of back alley history, the Pavilion that gives a sense of opulence to a place that is amongst the salt of the Earth and home to some great music.

Stark, Stories from the Underground. Album Review. full post

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

Adrian Nation, Live At Crossroads. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The sense of wanting to belong to something hangs in the air like an unspoken memory, a thought of clarity and perspective comes through the speakers and dispels the confusion and bewilderment that comes with the fast living in which we have all become far too accustomed to, the brakes have been tampered with and each one of no longer it seems has the time to grasp the moment to breathe. Guitarist Adrian Nation winds the window down, hands you an oxygen mask and smiles as he plays and his new album Live at Crossroads is a timely reminder to see through the muck, the shattered glass and outward momentum and just take in a truth.

Adrian Nation, Live At Crossroads. Album Review. full post

(385 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Paloma Faith, A Perfect Contradiction. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There should be no doubting the strength of the appeal of Paloma Faith. Like Holland’s Caro Emerald, Paloma Faith crosses the borders between the pop heart and the jazz soul with lots of room for the exuberance of discovery, that tingle you feel run up your spine as she starts to sing and the music that follows her every move, ever sanguine note is like a coiled cobra ready to strike out and bite you pleasantly till you submit to her whim.

Paloma Faith, A Perfect Contradiction. Album Review. full post

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

The Twang, NEONTWANG. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

If there is one part of the country that can possibly rival Liverpool for its attitude to music then Birmingham waves a large flag proclaiming its music history and its adoration of those that made venues such as The Rainbow, the old now seemingly forgotten Hummingbird and the gig area of The Dubliner their home before finding the way to world-wide success.

The Twang, NEONTWANG. Album Review. full post

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

Mike Oldfield, Man On The Rocks. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Like the well timed bus that comes just as the rain starts to pour down or the moment when they person you have harboured a crush on for years tells you that they have always been in love with you; Mike Oldfield’s latest album, Man On The Rocks, provides the little ray of sunshine in a day that can be filled with every aspect of grey imaginable.

Mike Oldfield, Man On The Rocks. Album Review. full post

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

Emily Smith, Echoes. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are very few things as stirring as someone who wears their Celtic heart firmly upon their tartan sleeve. The heartache and pride of a thousand and more years history, the memory of water being distilled and savoured as if the most precious thing on Earth and the sound of a fiddle being weaved gently into the still night air, only to be heard by the faithful like a rallying call to mourn those lost and celebrate life in the mist and midst of Brigadoon. Such is the power of Emily Smith’s latest album Echoes, that Brigadoon is only a memory away.

Emily Smith, Echoes. Album Review. full post

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