Tankard: Pavlov’s Dawgs. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We are all summoned by the sound of someone else’s bell, some will become accustomed to the conditioning that they slaver and slave to produce the required response, others will timidly follow suit in the hope they are seen to be seen, their entire existence it seems is to bow and beg to the hand that feeds; and then there are those who hear the bell, understand that it is time to shine, but will go out of their way to fight for what is right, to bite the hand that feeds if needs be, if it means others are set free to be exactly who they want to be.

Tankard: Pavlov’s Dawgs. Album Review. full post

(389 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Blancmange: Private View. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Whether alone in a grand ballroom, or through a peep hole as the moon rises overhead and the crowds mill around you in the less than seedy part of Times Square in the early 1990s, a Private View is one that carries a certain privilege, as well as the inevitable connotations that are drawn, the sense of remoteness as the emotions tumble and swirl are there to remind you that a private view is just that, one that can only be shared after the fact, and by doing so you become the presenter of a unique and possibly thrilling experience.

Blancmange: Private View. Album Review. full post

(438 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Rory Gallagher: Deuce – 50th Anniversary Edition Box Set.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Hindsight is a power much abused by those who seek to redress their viewpoint, to move it away from what could be seen as crass, as perhaps mean spirited, and certainly often fuelled by an agenda unbecoming that of the ordinary person.

The reflection of enforced observation, the kind that comes from putting distance between the object and the critic, is such that history always reveals more about one, and punishes the grandee of outspoken views in the same cosmic karma breathe. That history, even in fifty years, can be altered to show the truth of sentiment behind someone’s printed opinion, is thankfully available and one that is spellbindingly obvious as the timely extended box set release of Rory Gallagher’s second studio album, Deuce, as it turns a half century old.

Rory Gallagher: Deuce – 50th Anniversary Edition Box Set. full post

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

Echo & The Bunnymen: Evergreen – 25th Anniversary Edition. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The darkness between light is often painted as one of unescapable torture, of anguished emotions heightened by drama and ongoing threats against the soul. Black is a dichotomy, it is regal, it is the symbol of elegance, and it is the void we look in to when the absence of other colours starts to make our minds panic at that which it cannot fathom, that it feels compelled to be drawn to.

Echo & The Bunnymen: Evergreen – 25th Anniversary Edition. Album Review. full post

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

Richard Marx: Songwriter. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Richard Marx is more than just a Songwriter, he is one of those blessed individuals whose very name is synonymous with the art he has immersed himself within, a creator who stands alongside and shoulder to shoulder with many of the greats of the 20th Century, and who has, if it were indeed possibly, surpassed himself as in the following decades has become established in the minds of the modern music listener.

Richard Marx: Songwriter. Album Review. full post

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

Shakespears Sister: Hormonally Yours. (30th Anniversary Reissue). Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

“To be great”, as the American poet once insisted, “is to be misunderstood”. Seven words that perhaps on the face of it could be seen as demeaning the application and hard work it takes to be considered touched by genius, to be of the soil and the clay and see the stars clearly and without exaggeration: but Ralph Waldo Emerson showed that greatness is often cursed by those not willing to comprehend the sacrifice made, the sense of madness, the beauty in the mayhem as the art flows, as what is with the human soul comes alive and breathes in the nectar of the illustrious.

Shakespears Sister: Hormonally Yours. (30th Anniversary Reissue). Album Review. full post

(543 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Neil Campbell & Nicole Collarbone: Berlin Suite & Other Stories. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The stories that allow you to direct the narrative as the music sweeps you along are ones that appeal to a different, and perhaps more imaginative side of the brain. The mind sensing an opportunity to add its own colour to the art, its own tale to the endearing presence before it, will go with the flow and produce something unique, its own exclusive drama which at any time the mood changes will add more distinctive sentences and words to the already extraordinary setting encountered.

Neil Campbell & Nicole Collarbone: Berlin Suite & Other Stories. E.P. Review. full post

(411 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

The Stranglers: Suite XVI. (2022 Reissue). Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The reissue has become one of celebrity fashion, and for the lover, the admirer, the enthusiast, they are moments released once more in time that showcase the need to pay attention to what is being played out in front of you; for in the initial release you are listening to the statement put out by all concerned, studio, management, public relations, and the band, but it could be argued that the re-release, the box set, the first time on vinyl is done by the band only…others may find their input heeded, but the band, the group, if we avoid the notion of lucre playing its part, want you to hear their full and non-edited feelings…they want the unabridged sigh of contentment to be immersive, to be unshackled.

The Stranglers: Suite XVI. (2022 Reissue). Album Review. full post

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

Megadeth: The Sick, The Dying…and the Dead. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The Sick, The Dying…and the Dead, perhaps for the first time this century we are acutely aware of how we have let down those who need us most, those innocents to whom we have stepped over in the name of progress, in the name of war, of so-called liberation, in the name of many gods.

Megadeth: The Sick, The Dying…and the Dead. Album Review. full post

(506 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Shetland. Series Seven. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Douglas Henshall, Alison O’Donnell, Steve Robertson, Anneika Rose, Julie Graham, Lewis Howden, Erin Armstrong, Anne Kidd, Shauna Macdonald, Andrew Whip, Patrick Robinson, Laurie Brett, Stuart McQuarrie, Alexandra Finnie, Connor McCarry, Angus Miller, Lucianne McEvoy, Ladi Emeruwa, Grant O’Rourke.

Disasters such as The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in 1986, the Sea Empress crashing into the sound at Milford Haven, and The Taylor Oil Spill in The Gulf of Mexico, just a pinch of the disasters that have threatened the eco system around the world in the life time of us all, and yet everyday tragedies leave the local populace and the wildlife that shares the spaces with humanity looking at ruin, feeling the pain of mankind’s folly, and even death.

Shetland. Series Seven. Television Review. full post

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