Category Archives: Music

Mike Ryan: All We Have Is Now. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

All We Have Is Now…and that is the truth of it; for we can plan for the future as much as we are able, we can look ahead with degree of certainty that our plans will be realised, but the moment comes and goes with frightening regularity, and we are in the end undeniably slaves to the prospect of the tick and the tock of a potential lost.

If we grasp the moment with a force of momentum that leaves scars on the hand, then that now is forever framed and laid down in ways that leave a searing heat of pleasure across the conscious of the artist within.

Mike Ryan: All We Have Is Now. Album Review. full post

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

Gareth Williams: Songs From The Last Page. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Art inspires art.

History is replete with the historical and the past endeavours of an artist enthusing the soul of the student, of the long distant sculpture illustrating to the modern cartoonist just how to capture form and feeling, of the novel displaced in time being captured like lighting in between a leather cover performing miracles in the world of music long after the authors have passed their way into the next realm.

Gareth Williams: Songs From The Last Page. Album Review. full post

(372 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Paul Hardcastle: Nineteen And Beyond: 1984-1988. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The strangeness of being a name on the lips of everyone to one who can pass relatively unnoticed through a large crowd is one that is an underrated and startling. It is a reassurance that we can all have a moment in the national limelight that is filled with compliment and congratulations, and then be comfortable in our niche that we thrive, without being exposed to overwhelming idolatry.

Paul Hardcastle: Nineteen And Beyond: 1984-1988. Box Set Review. full post

(566 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

The 19th Street Band: Near Perfect. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Striving for perfection is to be lauded, but it is time to admit that it is a curse on the artistic endeavour, it puts the apprentice and the star eyed pupil off as they are not only competing against themselves, but the judgement of the one to whom stands beside them with the large stick of authority relishing the opportunity to install a discipline that becomes a spectre at the feast of enjoyment.

The 19th Street Band: Near Perfect. Album Review. full post

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

Justin Levinson: Collamer Circle. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Justin Levinson is a name that arguably won’t be familiar to the music lovers of the U.K., and that as is stands, is okay, for the nature of the islands is often insular, only embracing long after the introductions and with a wariness that comes from shaking hands too often with that which eventually fades away. Only the hardiest of listeners push the virtue of that which could inspire, and when the message finally hits home, what is created is a lens of enjoyment, a full stare down the musical barrel and one that is a true creation by one who himself was inspired by the likes of the legendary Lester Bowie and Fontella Bass.

Justin Levinson: Collamer Circle. Album Review. full post

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

Erasure: Always (The Very Best Of Erasure). Vinyl reissue (2023) Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

How we measure Time is one of artificial construct, and yet like other species, we can find ourselves not thinking of it in ways of the seconds and hours, of the days taken from us as we wrestle with nostalgia and hope of finer times, but in terms of how sculpture evolves for the artist.

Erasure: Always (The Very Best Of Erasure). Vinyl reissue (2023) Review. full post

(502 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Olivia Ross: Grace The Blue. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Perhaps its prophetic, more certainly timely, but as the stunning Olivia Ross delivers her immense debut solo album to the fans and music lovers, so we should turn our back on the grey and look to Grace The Blue skies that will, if we embrace the opportunity to do away with all that we understand to be toxic, all that we have clung onto in the hope they will lead us to some mythical utopian dream. 

Olivia Ross: Grace The Blue. Album Review. full post

(378 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Joseph Houck: Haunts & Wants. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

That which we desire haunts us, then when we finally attain that which stole our waking dreams, we arguably allow it to control us, never to seek its counsel, only to divide our soul and brain into two different factions; one which concerns itself with managing the wonder, and that which wants more, that which demands an extension of the feeling, the rush, in which it first experienced the joy at hand.

Joseph Houck: Haunts & Wants. Album Review. full post

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

William The Conqueror: Excuse Me While I Vanish. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We don’t truly disappear in an instant, one day we are here the next we are not; for even in the final moment between life and death the sense of self resides with hope…it is more that we slowly overtime vanish from view, what we perceive for us to be is slowly wiped away like a complex sum on a maths board that is poured over and studied and then slowly cleaned as the student moves on to more intricate methods of discerning the subject matter.

William The Conqueror: Excuse Me While I Vanish. Album Review. full post

(498 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Thom Morecroft: Waiting For Leo. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Every little thing we do is documented from the moment we come into the world, and if we are fortunate, that comes in the form of art, through the skill and performance of a person who will do anything, who will tear apart the world, just to make you smile.

A dedication on an album will give us a glow, a mention in a biography will leave a lasting impression for the generations that follow us on Time’s crazy stone paving; to be the star of the tale, the inspiration, the stimulus for the artist’s pursuit of examination will forever be the lodestone of our time on Earth, for we are the reason a piece of art, in whatever form, exists.

Thom Morecroft: Waiting For Leo. Album Review. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)