Category Archives: Music

Dire Straits: Live 1978-1992. Album Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Undoubtedly Dire Straits should be thought of one of the most dynamic and talented groups to have graced the studio and the arenas of the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, a sound caught in the whirlwind of zeitgeist, an image that had listeners obsessed with the way the guitar evoked such a feeling of drama and fierce complex emotions, how it tied with the lyrical poetic form of anguish, of nostalgia, and the combination of what was bordering on Progressive with the length of songs that were unveiled in each studio album, or the form they took in expanding a narrative.

Dire Straits: Live 1978-1992. Album Box Set Review. full post

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

Nordic Viola: Elsewhere, Elsewhen. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

However much we hold onto the beauty of the southern aspect of Europe as being a dream of existence within our souls, the sense of sultry evenings and flowing wines, of warmth keeping our blood alive, we must acknowledge, that the north of the continent has its own history which runs in our D.N.A. The sagas might not be as well versed amongst the population as those that scintillated and remained from Rome or Greece, but they persist, they have meaning and we must accept that ancient civilizations and their ability to enthral through art is just as important as that which the likes of Ovid or Aristophanes excelled.

Nordic Viola: Elsewhere, Elsewhen. Album Review. full post

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

Black Grape: Orange Head. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Life’s beige acceptance has meant that we are now outraged by people who a decade ago would have been left by the wayside as non-entities, as the fools they have shown themselves to be, and we are the ones to whom have paid the price for the simpering maladjustment of grandeur we have afforded them.

Black Grape: Orange Head. Album Review. full post

(403 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Afton Wolfe: The Harvest. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

How we use language is a guide to how we see humanity, the more it is flourished, how it insists upon growth and diversity, the way it is structured with words that adaptable, malleable, full of strong conscious words that make a person weep with exultation and dream of peace, then the chances are that the language used is one of a truth that has been truly embraced.

Afton Wolfe: The Harvest. Album Review. full post

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

Kalandra: Bardaginn. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

You don’t have to understand the words spoken to acknowledge their meaning. You don’t have to recognise the language to absorb the proposal, or the aim of the dialogue and conversation intended; all that is required is to tell the difference between the struggle and the light in someone’s heart for you to feel the empathy in your soul for their song.

We live in a time of mass confrontation, all sides flexing muscles that have been hidden through diplomacy and friendship, suddenly raw and exposed and dripping with sentiments that threaten the safety of all caught in the crossfire of the oncoming storm and battle.

Kalandra: Bardaginn. Single Review. full post

(325 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Kirsty MacColl: See That Girl. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To wander with interest through the life of an artist’s complete work is a privilege of time, but it can also be one filled with the melancholic sadness as the listener is reminded constantly of what might have been, how they might have been able to See That Girl or young lad who grew to be one of the most encompassing artists of the listener’s life pass on far before their time.

Kirsty MacColl: See That Girl. Box Set Review. full post

(466 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Ian McNabb: New Brighton Rock. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

A modern day Pinkie Brown could be imagined to be walking the streets of the town on the Wirral, hat strategically placed in a position of authority, a crisp suit that would cost the wearer more than a week’s wages, if he had to pay for it, and for all purposes the man who ran the seaside town with a fist of iron…this is the wonderful sense of power that strides through the objectively superb and musically thrilling new album by Ian McNabb, New Brighton Rock.

Ian McNabb: New Brighton Rock. Album Review. full post

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

The Long Shadow. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision

Cast: David Morrissey, Lee Ingleby, Toby Jones, Liz White, Michael McElhatton, Jack Deam, Toby Jones, Chloe Harris, Steven Waddington, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Kris Hitchin, Stephen Tompkinson, Liam Garrigan, Christopher Hatherall, John Henshaw, Victoria Myers, Shaun Thomas, Charley Webb, James Clay, Emma Cunniffe, Adam Long, Kate Rutter, Dorothy Atkinson, Sorcha Groundsell, Jill Halfpenny, Marcus Fraser, Daniel Mays, Charlotte Tyree, Paul Brennen, Colin R. Campbell, Alexa Davies, Emma Williams, Nicola Stephenson, Robert James-Collier, Daisy Waterstone, Mark Stobbart, Sammy Winward, Katherine Kelly, Nigel Betts.

The Long Shadow. Television Drama Review. full post

(630 words, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

The Suns: Reverse Life Forward. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Searching through the subconscious is an art form that many find unsettling, it reveals parts of the mind that they would prefer to be closed off, shut away, lacking in depth and the eloquence that insists we explore if we are to produce that which frames us with completeness, that which rejoices our soul as we perform to the massed ranks of all who wish us well.

The Suns: Reverse Life Forward. Album Review. full post

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

Robert Vincent: The Insider. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The pedigree of Rob Vincent is beyond reproach, and beyond measure, for it cannot be vocalised enough that the music world has certainly missed the generous and lush sounds, the voice that could mend hearts and the perspective of lyrics that make many a poet linger in the vicinity and feel their pulse quicken. It is the whisper of The Insider, the one who knows all the secrets, the one who feels the pain and sees the joker played, that makes his return so sweet and adored.

Robert Vincent: The Insider. Single Review. full post

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