Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
In the years to come Birmingham City Council should and must erect a statue to the local lad who became one of its finest musicians and record producers. If they can put up a piece of modern art for the great comedian Tony Hancock then by beyond all reasonable doubt they should put one up of the equally excellent Jeff Lynne.
Madness are one of the quintessential British groups that made their name in the late 1970’s and who still, over 30 years later, are able to raise a smile of joyful expectation when they announce a new album or showcase one of their much anticipated sell out night at venues up and down the country.
After much success with their previous three studios albums; One Step Beyond, Absolutely and 7, all of which made the U.K. top ten, the band released in the autumn of 1982 their fourth and arguably their best album The Rise and Fall. This would stand musically head and shoulders above all other contenders till the men from North London hit music gold in 2009 with the inspired and tantalising concept album which surrounds the love of London and its people in The Liberty of Norton Folgate.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
One of the archetypical Progressive Rock bands and undoubtedly one of the finest to have come from mainland Europe, Focus, have come up trumps again with their brand new album Focus X.
Focus may be described as legendary; however there isn’t a word in existence to express how much they are revered, despite poor critical acclaim on some of their albums in the lean period of their tenure as one of Europe’s most important Prog bands. Since the group was resurrected for the Focus 8 album in 2002, their following has returned and so has the excitement of listening to this genuinely unique and fantastic band.
Although R.E.M. had been around for many years, by the time Automatic for the People came out in 1992, the excitement and rush it caused in their long term fans could be seen as finally over-spilling into mainstream appeal.
The band had finally broken both the U.K. and American top ten with their previous album Out of Time and with Automatic for the People they cemented their position as one of the great alternative/rock band of the period. The four musicians that made up the band seemed to pick the right time to come of age, making their way through a very pop dominated 1980’s in which to start with they barely troubled the U.K. charts, through the power period dominated by bands such as Heart/Whitesnake/T’Pau and finally were in the position to be among the bands that were sweeping aside the celebrity culture of pop inspired false personality.
Genesis, especially the classic line up of Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett would become one of the U.K.’s favourite Progressive Rock bands on the strength of the 1972 album Foxtrot.
This eccentric band packed to the rafters with burgeoning talent had already broken parts of Europe with Trespass and the charming Nursery Cryme but as had up to that point failed to break the U.K top 20 album chart. Their first album From Genesis to Revelation had failed to convince the British public that their music was worth listening to, Trespass saw them make inroads and Nursery Cryme make friends, it was however the pastoral feel combined with an abundance of British eccentricity that would convince music listeners that these five performers had something worthwhile to say.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
As the Kevin Critchley Outfit they were brutally good, interesting and gave one excellent show after another As The Fifth Movement, the same burning desire to bring out some of the most interesting music still rings true, however there seems to be an edge, a sympathetic ruthlessness, that pervades across the E.P., A Roll of the Dice, which just is outstandingly clever and musically satisfying.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *****
There is no other way to describe the Irish singer Damien Dempsey than incredibly imposing in his natural gift of poetic words that shine like a beacon across from Dublin Bay and point out the injustice that still pervades across both countries that straddle the Irish Sea and imposing in his stature and honesty.
It is this talent, this raw, unflinching and thankfully untameable man that brings the songs of his life, that of the still forgotten people of that part of Ireland and the growing number of disposed and disenfranchised people beyond it which makes his new album, Almighty Love, such a remarkable and perfect statement.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating ***
There comes a time in a groups, hopefully distinguished career, where a listener may stop and think, well that was good but it wasn’t really as awesome as everybody raved on and on about. That might be the case with Muse’s sixth album The 2nd Law.
One of the band’s great strengths over the last few albums is the absolute conviction that they have created something approaching unique, something nothing less than genuinely superb and out of this world. Even including Black Holes and Revelations into this equation, which after quite a few plays revealed an album that wasn’t quite up to scratch, full of pit falls and loosely tied together with some very appealing songs as Map of the Problematique and Invincible, it still suited the canon and the ways of Muse.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating ****
For anyone, who in the last couple of years caught one of the original godfathers of modern music, Bruce Foxton, performing with Mark Brzezicki and Russell Hastings as part of the excellent From the Jam will point out, the man who put rock into roll is back and better than ever.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *****
In 1992 an album was released by the name of Little Earthquakes and the impression it made on those who heard it turned the composer of the delicate and angst ridden tunes into at first a cult hero and then over the ensuing 20 years has turned her into an absolute legend. Tori Amos doesn’t sit still, not at her beloved piano and more importantly not in her life. Just a little over a year since she released her first foray into classical music, she has come out all guns blazing with the breathtaking Gold Dust.