The Betterdays: Hush Your Mouth (The Betterdays Anthology). Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Quieten down and listen, Hush Your Mouth and take notice of more than just the usual names to which you believe fill your musical world…the universe of aural pleasure and revelation is constantly shifting, renewing, renovating, and even in the period that you grow up in, your generation, there are bands and musicians that you will come across but somehow, inexplicably, not see how great they are, how in tune with the period, the yesterdays, the tomorrows – The Betterdays in which you found yourself singing along with life and Time, those bands were.

The Betterdays: Hush Your Mouth (The Betterdays Anthology). Album Review. full post

(679 words, estimated 2:43 mins reading time)

John Illsley: VIII. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We didn’t think it at the time but listening to Dire Straits was an experience that perhaps arguably has never been matched. The sense of appreciation has increased, the roster of former performers, the touching of genius that ran through the band in a way that bordered on enigmatic passion, has seen the players all go their own way since the break-up of the band in 1995 and produce music that has both embraced the sound that captured hearts and the imagination, and the depth of knowledge of their own loves, the music that makes their own personalities shine through.

John Illsley: VIII. Album Review. full post

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

Anvil: Impact Is Imminent. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

To be in the fast lane does not always mean that you have been fast-tracked, for it is better, more productive and noteworthy to have had the engine tick over for a while as you build momentum, as you gauge the road ahead, as you watch for signs that might hinder the journey, and then as you pull out, as you ease the foot down on the pedal, you know for sure that Impact Is Imminent, not in a crash that will derail you, but for going through the barrier of belief and digging deep into the conscious of public opinion; that impact, that sense of powerful influence that comes to those who are patient and wait for the right moment to strike.

Anvil: Impact Is Imminent. Album Review. full post

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

Keith Thompson: Smoke And Mirrors. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It’s all done with Smoke and Mirrors.

The sceptic would have you believe that nothing in this world is as it seems, that we are being deceived, our own belief is under attack from the fallibility of expression, the shortcomings of our naivety, and yet it is those very same sceptics who denounce the positives and embrace a negativity unworthy of human existence that will have you believe that only their word is true, that they beyond all others must be heard and lauded as if they were kings of a realm we could not hope to envisage.

Keith Thompson: Smoke And Mirrors. Album Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Hannah Read & Michael Starkey: Cross The Rolling Water. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

No matter the transport available, you should always take up the offer of being shown what lays on the other side of the unknown, to Cross The Rolling Water and into the harbours that encompass the unfamiliar, the strangely haunting, and the mysterious new; for how else are we to suggest that we are willing to be more than just a representation of what we have always been, that if we cannot operate the oars of discovery, that if the sails or the rigging is too much for us, then we don’t deserve to be anything other than stranded in our own town and fields of close minded affairs forever.

Hannah Read & Michael Starkey: Cross The Rolling Water. Album Review. full post

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

Peacemaker. Television Series Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Chukwudi Iwuji, Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee, Robert Patrick, Annie Chang, Lochlyn Munro, Dee Bradley Baker, Elizabeth Faith Ludlow, Rochelle Greenwood, Zak Santiago, Nhut Le, Christopher Heyerdahl, Viola Davis, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller.

Despite the often-overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Marvel does not have it all their own way when it comes to producing films and television fantasy and superhero comic book serials that capture the imagination of the viewers, even in a world where they have become the dominant force, they are arguably pushed by the appearance of the unexpected, the one series that rivals all of theirs; and in the case of Peacemaker, it is one that is absolutely and adorably near perfect.

Peacemaker. Television Series Review. full post

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

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Rachel McAdams, Hayley Atwell, Jett Klyne, Julian Hilliard, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sheila Hilliard, Adam Hugill, Lasana Lynch, John Krasinski, Charlize Theron, Bruce Campbell, Anson Mount, Patrick Stewart.

All that you is not just down to how you act in this world, it is also how others see you, what they witness, what they perceive, their judgements and their biased convictions; but what if it went deeper than that, what if the shroud of what we are, when pulled back, revealed more than just one face, but several, each with their own history, each with a perception of life that is reflected in the decisions and paths taken, and those we believe we would never take.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. Film Review. full post

(514 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Logan Kim, Celeste O’Connor, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Sigourney weaver, Bob Gunton, J.K. Simmons, Shawn Seward, Billy Bryk, Sydney Mae Diaz, Hannah Duke.

Nostalgia isn’t just reminiscing for what is missed, in some cases it is a wistfulness that shouldn’t be touched, it is the catalyst of return, and whether the moment of the resumption of a tale or a friendship meets our expectations, it cannot be denied that it fuels the longing and the melancholy for what was the original first meeting.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Film Review. full post

(441 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Inside No. 9: Nine Lives Kat. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, Sophie Okonedo, Robin Weaver, Siobhan Redmond, Coco-Lili Hoder.

The space between the writer and their creation is one so small that they can often overlap, they become one and the same, the observation of one enhances the act of the other, and in this merging of souls the space narrows to the most infinite of spaces possible.

Inside No. 9: Nine Lives Kat. Television Review. full post

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

Moon Knight. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, May Calamawy, F. Murray Abraham, David Ganly, Ann Akinjiran, Karim El Hakim, Michael Benjamin Hernandez, Shaun Scott, Antonia Salib, Khalid Abdalla, Lucy Thackeray, Fernanda Andrada, Rey Lucas.

An almost unceasing roster of characters to draw from, an embarrassment of riches, a plethora of costumed superheroes in which to bring to the screen, and yet one of the most underrated might never have seen the light beyond the pages of the graphic novel had it not been for the persistence of Time and the pulling power of Disney and Marvel combined.

Moon Knight. Television Review. full post

(557 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)