Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Our worst regrets in life are those that are captured by the glow of harshness that shines directly into our eyes, shone as if by a raging beacon by those that love us, that care for our hearts and minds. It is those regrets, those moments when our actions cause pain, hurt and misery to those we have held closely in our lives, that cause the most distress and can leave us Sleeping Like A Maniac.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
One Day…it is the lie and the hope we tell each ourselves, the moment when we decide firmly that we wish to attempt to own a slice of time that is forever ours; whether we achieve it or not is not in the lap of the gods or the dictation of fate, it is whether we believe the lie enough to see it become reality, or we cloud our judgement by insisting that the truth of success is unobtainable, that hope sits in the same imposing chair as scornful optimism and cannot be budged by sheer human effort.
Liverpool Sound and Vision 9/10
To have your essence, your personality, your soul, captured by an artist is perhaps the sincerest sign of immortality that one person can bestow upon another.
We become excited by the thought of seeing ourselves on the television, maybe filmed at a concert in the front row, or at a football match where the scorer of the decisive goal rushes to the crowd to celebrate, and the camera picks you out; screen shot saved for all eternity. Yet that fleeting rush is only produced because of the single moment, not one framed by the eyes of an artist who sees beneath the skin veneer and the outer shell and who appreciates the soul enough to weave into existence a song that truly marks you out as being remarkable; a human being with a story to tell.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The artistic endeavour behind a fully immersive concept album is one that for the most part is sadly lacking from today’s required listening; even the concept album itself, aside from being practised by a few hardy souls, seems to have fallen by the wayside.
It seems to be instead, simply okay to sew together a few loose threads under a banner of tropes and ideas and place it under the banner to which so many in the past have sweated over the construction and assembly of a story which resonates, which has its own lengthy pulse sharpened, the structure of the machine whirring as the introduction, the rise and fall of the protagonist unveils a masterpiece with no illusion, only painstaking beauty at its heart.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Legends are not just presented to the crowd fully formed, all smiles and P.R. presentable, they are cultivated, they have a history, they have lived in the dirt, soaked up the atmosphere of a thousand disappointments, and they perhaps bow out before their time.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It is a memory for most of us, the moment when the schoolteacher would ask the pupils under their guidance to write a letter to their future selves, to imagine, if possible, how their lives panned out, what hopes, untold, and as yet unthought desires have happened in their lives and which shaped the future.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Rules, like cliches, are meant not only be broken, but they are also there to be smashed, destroyed, never put in place in the first instance; for if we abide by the rules, then the defiance of transgression in art is a criminal act, and the only point that will Deliver Us from the beige and the obsession with dull routine is one that delights in placing all human emotions into the same category and the same state of mind.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
When asked to illuminate the path so that others may follow in your footsteps, it is not so that they can steal your limelight, nor is it because they are wary of treading off the path and ending in the quagmire of disillusion and disappointment, it is because they have witnessed the stride and measure of the beauty you have spread along the way, and they want to stroll past the same flowering buds, and help make them grow.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
How do you top an epic; to be frank it is virtually impossible, not unfeasible, but practically gruelling, an act that test the fortitude of even the greatest artists of all time.
If you look at some of the great Rock and Prog bands of all time, the action of producing what is in effect a masterpiece can have serious effects on the dynamic, can lead to serios questions being asked of the long-term direction of the group. Disaffection muddies still waters, and leads to break-ups, to the closing down of communication, and to the sore eyes of jealousy being opened and the terrible urge to destroy something beautiful becomes overwhelming.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The enormity of a return can never be taken for granted, nor should it be expected that the moment of greatest possible success can be replicated to the exact and defining point. However, the excitement of such a homecoming, the restoration of a valued enterprise and line up should be heralded with a certain amount of glee and trumpets that are strong enough to bring down the fabled walls of Jericho.