Erja Lyytinen: Diamonds On The Road -Live 2023. Live Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Live albums are defined by their nature to aim arrows of desire straight at the heart of the discerning and fanciful listener, they are created not only to showcase the brilliance of the artist in the setting of their choice, but to install the craving to witness the machine and the soul working in harmony for themselves; it is a symbol of union that has been proactively astute for decades and does wonders for the morale of both the musician and for the loving inquisitive public.

Erja Lyytinen: Diamonds On The Road -Live 2023. Live Album Review. full post

(478 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Ahsoka. Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Rosario Dawson, David Tennant, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, Eman Esfandi, Hayden Christensen, Nican Robinson, Evan Whitten, Lars Mikkelsen, Genevieve O’Reilly, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Jeryl Prescott, Claudia Black, Jane Edwina Seymour, Wes Chatham, Nelson Lee, Paul Darnell, Maurice J. Irvin, Clancy Brown, Anthony Daniels.

The Mandalorian and Andor proved it, and Dave Filoni’s Ahsoka has doubled down with force on the insistence, but Star Wars as an entity no longer requires the presence of Luke Skywalker, General Leia Organa, or even Han Solo in starring roles to carry the much loved and admired franchise forward.

Ahsoka. Television Series Review. full post

(525 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Only Murders In The Building: Series Three. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Paul Rudd, Meryl Streep, Michael Cyril Creighton, Jackie Hoffman, Tina Fey, Matthew Broderick, Jane Lynch, Jeremy Shamos, Jesse Williams, Mel Brooks, Teddy Coluca, Ryan Broussard, Jason Veasey, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, James Caverly, Gerard Caesar, Linda Emond, Ashley Park, Don Darryl Rivera, Wesley Taylor, Allison Guinn, Andrea Martin, Joel Waggoner, Taylor Colwell, Harry Sutton Jr.

Only Murders In The Building: Series Three. Television Review. full post

(423 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Steely Dan: Aja. Album Reissue Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It is not what you know, but what you come to understand that means you have found revolution and evolution to be twins sharing a similar heart, a beat that time will always provide even when you don’t realise its was always waiting for you to catch up and be part of the movement going forward.

Evolution and revolution beats within every pulse of music, and perhaps for Steely Dan that was the driving force as Walter Becker and Donald Fagan sought expanse, as they strove for a kind of enlightenment and ambition in the album Aja.

Steely Dan: Aja. Album Reissue Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Magnetic Skies: Empire Falling. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The connection we believe we seek is not always apparent, it can come out of nowhere, it comes as we build monuments to all that we once held dear, it arrives unannounced as we see the past demolished in favour of new beliefs and loves, and as we come to understand the time it takes to see an Empire Falling, so we are struck by the enormity of the task in front of us to create a realm that will not suffer the same fate again.

Magnetic Skies: Empire Falling. Album Review. full post

(401 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Richard Wright: Wet Dream. Steven Wilson Remix. Album Reissue Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It seems incredulous that one of the godfathers of Progressive Rock should witness his own solo career defined by what could only be described as inertia, even apathy as he struggled to live in the shadows of two of the biggest presences and one of absolute enigma as they created music that would span into the coming decades with brutal certainty.

Richard Wright: Wet Dream. Steven Wilson Remix. Album Reissue Review. full post

(590 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

Crime. Series One. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Dougray Scott, Joanna Vanderham, Jamie Sives, Michael Abubaker, Gordon Kennedy, Angela Griffin, Ken Stott, Derek Riddell, Jonathan Kerrigan, Stuart Martin, Elle Haddington, Ewan Stewart, Laura Fraser, John Simm, Emma Hartley-Miller, Sarah McCardie, Alison McKenzie, Brian Bovell, Kim Chapman, Sorcha Groundsell, Paige Green, Ian Hanmore, Moyo Akendé, Bhav Joshi, Brian James Leys.

We demand that our police force be corruption free, that our detectives be without vice, that the thin blue line be rigid and unyielding, but never allowed to go beyond what is reasonable and defined by law in the pursuit of justice…

Crime. Series One. Television Review. full post

(537 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Toyah: The Changeling. Album Reissue Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When an album has the feel of a concept perfectly weaved through it, and yet does not have the final essence that gives it that stamp of recognition, that is the sign of total mastery by the artist, and arguably what might be considered the best album of a career because of it.

Toyah, the undisputed Queen of Birmingham’s gig theatre experience, stepped out of the adulation received for the album Anthem, and perhaps found a different way to express her own feelings, her emotions, and turned the poetry and art within her rage to one which is almost Progressive, beyond verse, it is punk but with an extra emotional drama attached to it.

Toyah: The Changeling. Album Reissue Review. full post

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

65. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman, Nika King, Brian Dare.

Laudable, proof on intent, utilising the very best aspects of humanity placed in a terrible situation where the audience understands the race against time and Armageddon, and yet 65, despite the dinosaur and meteor CGI, finds itself in the realm of the big feature film excess that falls unfortunately under the weight of expectation.

65. Film Review. full post

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

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush, Christina Ching, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, Babs Olusanmokun, Rebecca Romijn, Paul Wesley, Adrian Holmes, Carol Kane, Melanie Scrofano, Dan Jeannotte, Bruce Horak, Mia Kirschner, Gia Sandhu, Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero, Jerry O’ Connell, Greg Byrk, Clint Howard, Martin Quinn.

To view a series with the foreknowledge of what may happen to many of the characters in the future is one that in most circumstances would arguably lead to viewer apathy, the storyline hoped for always standing in the shadows of the decline and death of a main player just so that they can feel the emotion of loss and excitement.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Series Two. Television Review. full post

(515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)