Category Archives: Music

Sugarray Rayford, In Too Deep. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Society is cruel, and it is a damning indictment on the whole of humanity that one of the foundations of civilisation has been slowly erased by many, even though we are more aware of the causes and the symptoms than ever before. We urge openness, we suggest compassion and the embracing of feelings, but it is arguably nothing more than lip service to those who are In Too Deep, for the struggles of the human mind when confronted by the images and experiences that lead to post traumatic stress are compounded by the age-old drama inflicted by the words of those who see such mental suffering as a cop out, an excuse, an avoidance.

Sugarray Rayford, In Too Deep. Album Review. full post

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

Mike Ryan. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is the voice of the seemingly softly spoken that the most damage can appear to be done, for whilst the taciturn and antagonistic, the aggressive and the uncompromising dole out their version of wisdom with forceful conceit, without impunity, the communitive and the peaceful will always find a way to break your heart without a shred of meanness or callused malice parting their lips.

Mike Ryan. Album Review. full post

(360 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

The Twangtown Paramours, Double Down On A Bad Thing. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

To declare a commitment with a firm voice, to insist upon on direction with force, is to affirm that you believe you are accurate in your assessment of the situation at hand; and whilst at times such doubling down on a certain subject could be seen in some quarters of resting in a world of the unmovable and unreceptive to change. However, to Double Down On A Bad Thing is a firm stance taken where it confronts the obstinate and beams in a sense of gorgeous alteration to which even the seasoned freestyle Jazz musician might consider you have adopted a progressive proactive principle.

The Twangtown Paramours, Double Down On A Bad Thing. Album Review. full post

(430 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

The Divine Comedy, A Charmed Life: The Best Of The Divine Comedy. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Songs of love, refrains of affection, and the melody that veers between a comic Jacques Brel and a sombre Noel Coward, a mixture of perfect timing and witty panache…arguably there is no one quite like Neil Hannon, and no name like The Divine Comedy in which to feel the enjoyment of the national love of words, of striking the balance between the entertaining observation and the delicate, often precisely subtle piercing that comes from the sharpened, easy on the ears humour.

The Divine Comedy, A Charmed Life: The Best Of The Divine Comedy. Album Review. full post

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

Lordi, The Skeletric Dinosaur. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It should be impossible to produce a continuous set of albums which deliver an unceasing amount of goodwill from the listener; after all, not everything can be enjoyed, be seen as a thrill, for sometimes, inevitably, the music must cease to be in synch with the listener, occasionally the groove must stop turning.

Lordi, The Skeletric Dinosaur. Album Review. full post

(421 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Lordi, Spooky Sextravaganza Spectacular. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Indisputable, incontrovertible, and as much as an extravaganza as the band insist that it be seen as, for as the all-encompassing box set Lordiversity continues to be released in digital format over separate weeks, an extravaganza is exactly what it is, and as the Spooky Sextravaganza Spectacular takes its rightful place in the pantheon of Lordi’s catalogue, and by doing so continues the surprising, but unquestionable truth, that the former Eurovision Song Contest winners are the arena filling band we all crave to see, because what happens in the studio is only a precursor to what will materialise on stage.

Lordi, Spooky Sextravaganza Spectacular. Album Review. full post

(362 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

Lotte Kestner, Lost Songs. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Lost Songs, we all have had the waking dream of a tune in our head and the words to match, but like an old fashioned radio that found its signal wandering during the night, we forget what poked its way through the clouds of brain fog and static eye movements, and so those would be classic hits, the songs that might have punctured the reserve and the shell of the cruel and unusual and forcing them to do right by humanity, are gone, just soundwaves never to be recaptured.

Lotte Kestner, Lost Songs. Album Review. full post

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

Spinn, Outside Of The Blue. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Do no harm, not just an oath for those that seek patients in distress, nor as a mantra into which we look upon the lives as others as sacred, but to our own souls, to our belief, for if we are cruel, if we are disposed to place anger against our own essence and being, then we are preparing ourselves to cause havoc on the one we should be caring for most; ourselves.

Spinn, Outside Of The Blue. Album Review. full post

(484 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Annie Keating, Twenty 22. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We are presented with two states of existence when we are urged to look at the new year and its possibilities, one of careful and observant hope, and another which can be seen as toxic happiness, the frame of mind which insists all around them pledge to show a face which belies their naked spirit, and arguably causes those others to feel something they would rather not confront.

Annie Keating, Twenty 22. Single Review. full post

(419 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Megadeth, A Night In Buenos Aires. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

You know exactly what you are going to be exposed to before the needle comes down gracefully upon the spinning vinyl, and yet the bolt of music you find your ears impaled upon is both satisfyingly and dynamically explosive. It is enough to register shock waves of pleasure and joy from across the oceans, it is seismic even after more than a decade and a half after it first appeared in cd form. It is the overwhelming arsenal poised at your heart, the warheads of metal ready to take off and bombarded the listener with strike after strike, the unrepentant wave of hits as A Night In Buenos Aires becomes the theatre of music that is so richly needed in a period of human inactivity.

Megadeth, A Night In Buenos Aires. Album Review. full post

(519 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)