Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Those Death Wish Blues will get you in the end, but until that time when the clocks reach their appointed hour you have the chance, the sublime opportunity to delve into two of the modern greats as they combine their incredible talent in an album that beats down the door of frustrating and riddled inelegance that has come to define an era dominated somewhat by the bland and crafted lyrical dullness.
Liverpool Sound and Vision 8.5/10
In one of the great mysteries of life, the fans of one of Birmingham’s finest musical ambassadors, the scintillating and unique Toyah Willcox, have always been left wondering why one of the most memorable performances of her early career was never given the aural treatment it deserved. Why it seemed to appear on every other format except the one it mattered on, the vinyl love it required to truly capture an icon at the height of her powers and majestic best.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Never allow yourself to stay down for too long, for the view is arguably addictive and the memories that accompany it are full of warmth and dangerously comforting.
Rise Again, step into the zone you are only vaguely familiar with, rise once more and find the place where industry meets imagination, and allow the feelings of passion for the new run its course and where it leads to discovery.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The labours of Hercules are often painted as a Greek romance, of the depths someone will go to prove their worth, or to atone for some misgiving. However, if we are to compare modern endeavours with that of Greek legend, then surely Sissyphus and the unstoppable boulder would be more of a direct analogy.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The demonstration of intent when it comes releasing your debut album is bound by a kind of artistic law that states it must show the confidence that is full of gravitas and punch, that if it fails to deliver a groove or the belief of scope and majesty required, then what you have created is not worth the life you have spent honing and perfecting your words, not setting the tone to which honours the pain and joy that your existence has endured so far.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
At least once in a person’s life, the wish to hit the Re-Set button is one they cannot ignore. They may plod on for a time in the usual manner, appearing to the world with a smile and a look of contentment, but the human spirit that dwells within will only burn for so long before it requires re-adjusting to the understanding that it needs to start again, not completely, but at the point where in the heart they may feel they wandered off the path of promise and hope and into the wilderness of appeasement and allowing others to misuse their good intentions.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We give power to that which makes us understand what drives us and to which can give us nightmares as we live in a waking state of fear and breakdown. This duality of life is to be expected…how we deal with it is where each person’s distinctive command, their circle of friends and lived ones, combine to bring peace to the mind of those caught in the spiral of living half in and half out of their soul for a while as events threaten to overtake them.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Keep your head down, don’t look into the eyes of the beast that is sizing you up, that is snaring so close by you can feel the remains of the last meal it ate hitting your nostrils as though you were breathing in the sickly smell of carnage and death….do whatever you can to avoid the beast, for if you dare look it in the eye, you know you are next.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are those who will damn a person for understanding melancholy, accusing them of pandering to the inevitability of the morose and the miserable as though it is a choice and not the sight of an empathetic soul who recognises that to relish the beauty of a spring day you have to live through, the expression of a Hard Frost with the same objective appreciation and consideration.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
“There are two sides to this story…”
As with any production of art that claims to have the structure of what defines the artist’s best work, it is always one that is up for debate, one that can divide the public to the point where it damages the intention beyond repair.
To the story of Kris Drever, nothing of the kind should ever cross the thoughts of those who have taken the Scottish musician to their hearts, and the fan to come who will undoubtedly utilise the album as a steppingstone to discovery, to what can only be reverentially understood as unearthing beauty.