Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
As the albums are re-released for the modern era, with a greater sense of occasion and fierce debate attached to them, it is to be delighted to witness the return of Steely Dan to the conscious of the older listener and be appreciated by a younger crowd who weren’t aware of just how ahead of their time they were.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The complexity of Christmas is such that it can cause inner conflict and turmoil to those who see the endless commercialism as an assault on their ability to not be downed in the saccharine and the overblown. To many the best part of the year is reserved not for the hype, but the beauty of the human experience of simple pleasures.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It could be speculated that to take two decades to release a new original album might see the artist in question expect to undergo a series of tough and rigorous demands and interrogations on the journey, on the distance, and how the new release might see them remain prevalent to a new generation of music listeners; especially in a period of time in which the extreme nature of art is as disposable as honour and understanding.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Such words have to be delivered with solemnity and with hand on heart, a declaration of involvement from the soul must be admitted, and yet upon hearing the genius that is John R. Chatterton you cannot help but feel the sense of occasion that arises, whether in the live, or in the fantastically produced self-titled recording welded together out of intent and presence…it is a clear message for those attending a gig that this album captures and frames the outstanding guitar playing of a musician to whom the world in its entirety should listen to.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The cynical will openly insist that any remix or even reissue is taken with perhaps more than eye on the pension coffers and lifestyles of the older statesmen and women of music, or worse…to line the pockets of the label owners who still revel n the success of those they once treated as cash cows.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Alliteration can be seen in some hands as a clumsy side effect of pretention, but in the hands of a true lover of human expression, observation, and sound, it is a heartbeat that cannot, must not, be ignored, for it is the prelude of the beauty of articulation that brings power to the performance and meaning to the soul.
The alliterative title of Rob Clarke’s three strong song maxi release, Blues Beats and Brel is one that sets the tone with a special resonance for the listener, and the tracks themselves are achingly cool and feel the surrounds with a generous and unrepentant heart.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Time is not always our friend, that much is certain when we not only look at the way we have lived our lives, but that which is encapsulated in the mercurial and those with aura’s as big as their souls. Time does not grant us immortality, nor is it gentle enough to dare offer all An Extraordinary Life; we just make of it what will, our mistakes a guide, our inspirations the hopeful pleasure we take in their company.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The spotlight on Steve Logan should be shining so bright that the reflection we see in our dark glasses would be one of complete illumination and thanks for the music released in his name.
That is not a complaint, after all to be in Steve’s company is to feel as though you are in an elite conversation, and whilst you know it won’t be a select crowd for long, in the meantime what passes is a sheer and scintillating continued introduction.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
We have become almost hypnotised by the sense of the quick reel on social media, the snapshot of a film, a conversation, a short piece of fan fiction given a human face…it reflects our capacity to ignore the long game, to allow the dictation of modern thinking that we can be amused for less than a minute before requiring shifting our attention to the next quick fix of pleasure.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Nothing Lasts Forever, even quality and heroism struggles to be remembered beyond the broken subjective details etched in stone and written in ink as decades turn to centuries, as truth becomes lost in the myths of time.
It is in this proof of burden that we turn to the dream of being in the here and now and understanding that we can embrace what may have alluded us in the past, the forgotten hit that in the moment of release we can find comfort, discover illumination, be one in the knowledge that our senses can be thrilled in our life time….the era that matters most to our souls.