Art Garfunkel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2019).

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

Legends only increase in value and heartfelt beauty with time, the song remains the same as the scene before the audience changes, youthful memory gives way to mature understanding, a sense of the distinguished statesman, the adored wisdom of a artist whose sensitivity has never been questioned, suddenly becomes in the eyes of the audience searching for that wonder, a monument made of human emotion and response to the loss of innocence we know for certain will never be found.

Art Garfunkel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2019). full post

(477 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Manfred Mann Radio Days Vol 2: The Mike D’Abo Era, Live At The BBC 66-69. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 8.5/10

We cannot but help but make comparisons, it is a natural urge to contrast the differences in style between one person and the next, it is perhaps a gauge in which we feel entitled to do so, from our prospective partners, to films and their re-imaginations, through to artistic works and into the realm of music.

Manfred Mann Radio Days Vol 2: The Mike D’Abo Era, Live At The BBC 66-69. Album Review. full post

(649 words, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

The Bordellos, Crabs. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Silently or with fanfare, you cannot but help fight the urge to scratch the lethargy and monotony of the usual suspects finding a way to get into every pore of your life; the usual grinning faces that look down upon you as if all you are is a social disease that is ripe for boiling and taking for all that you are worth, the meat devoured and the shell of your life discarded as if nothing good can come from hiding within your skin of armour.

The Bordellos, Crabs. E.P. Review. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

The Drystones, Apparitions. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

“Ghosts don’t haunt us…They’re present among us because we won’t let go of them”, wrote Sue Grafton with more than a touch of Earthy wisdom. It is perhaps a sentence that carries much weight when viewed from the spectre of how the arts can infect us mind, body and soul, and one that is particularly telling when we realise just how impossible it is to remove ourselves from the fragile beauty of the Apparitions that surround us and which give is great joy and the feeling of incorruptible melancholy at the same time.

The Drystones, Apparitions. Album Review. full post

(373 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

The Victim. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

Cast: Kelly Macdonald, James Harkness, John Hannah, Chloe Pirrie, Ramon Tikaram, Jamie Sives, Joanne Thomson, Pooky Quesnel, John Scougall, Cal MacAninch, Alison McKenzie, Nicholas Nunn, Karla Crome, Isis Hainsworth, Georgie Glen, Seylan Baxter, David Goodall, Zak Leyni, Caron Rae Brand.

We can never truly understand what goes through the mind of a murderer, for some it is a moment of insanity in which they cannot explain the event or their feelings towards the act in any manner that makes sense to the system or the potential psychiatrist who wishes to probe into the complexity of the situation; for others it is a marker, of dominance, of power, of holding a life in the grip of their hands and understanding full well the implications of their actions, and the possible thrill they get as they watch from a close enough distance their act being investigated.

The Victim. Television Review. full post

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

Shazam!, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

Cast: Zachary Levi, Michelle Borth, Djimon Hounsou, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Asher Angel, Marta Milans, Meagan Good, Grace Fulton, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Stephannie Hawkins, Cooper Andrews, Lovina Yavari, D.J. Cotrona, Natalia Safran, John Glover, Caroline Palmer, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Ava Preston, Jovan Armand, Evan Marsh, Andi Osho, Carson MacCormac, Lotta Losten.

Shazam!, Film Review. full post

(488 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Hellboy (2019), Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 7/10

Cast: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Thomas Haden Church, Mark Stanley, Brian Gleeson, Nadya Keranova, Maria Tepavicharova, Ana Tabakova, Penelope Mitchell, Terry Randal, Mario de la Rossa, Christopher Mata, Atanas Srebrev, Dawn Sherrer, Michael Heath, Alistair Petrie, Rick Warden, Nitin Ganatra, Sophie Okenedo, Marckos Routhwaite, Ilko Iliev, Joel Harlow, Dimiter Banenkin, Vanessa Eichholz, Kristina Klebe, Charles Shannon, Carl Hampe.

Some characters are so defined by the actor portraying them that is a near impossible task for the audience to imagine anyone else in the role, especially in the cinematic world which holds arguably a greater sway on the mind that of the other visual medium of television and certainly in the realm of theatre.

Hellboy (2019), Film Review. full post

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

Missing Link, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zach Galifianakis, Zoe Saldana, Timothy Olyphant, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, Armrita Acharia, David Walliams.

It quite often take what is considered a younger person’s film to bring a sense of truth to the adult mind, a connection, a bond to what we understand in our dotage to the tremendous appeal of discovery we yearned for when our imaginations were first forming and the world was a playground waiting to be discovered.

Missing Link, Film Review. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

The Sisters Brothers, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 8.5/10

Cast: John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, Rebecca Root, Allison Tolman, Ruger Hauer, Carol Kane, Patrice Cossonneau, David Gasman, Lenuta Bala, Ian Reddington, Aldo Maland, Theo Exarchopoulos, Sean Duggan, Raymond Waring, Johannes Haukur Johannesson, Gerard Cooke, Frederic Siuen, Trevor Allan Davies.

The Western was arguably a victim of its own success and the realisation that it held no meaning in an age where certain moments of history were being subject to closer and rightful scrutiny; the gung-ho feel of the interpreted hero and fatalism of the native American’s story not being considered beyond anything other than the role of the villain all combining to make The Western distasteful, to leave a sense of lies captured in the story.

The Sisters Brothers, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(502 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Wild Rose, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * *

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters, Sophie Okonedo, Craig Parkinson, Jamie Sives, Gemma McElhinney, James Harkness, Bob Harris, Ashley Shelton, Tracy Wiles, Daniel Campbell, Blair Kincaid, Janey Godley, James McElvar, Rachel Pearl, Vanya Eadie, J. Thomas Bailey, Sondra Morton, Lee Ann Maloney, Justin Hand, Patti Aagaard, Stuart Nisbit, Neil MacColl.

A film that relies on the visual cliche, no matter how well intentioned, is going to surely, and regrettably, be seen as nothing more than touching the very basic of emotions in an audience more than used to a more than likely ending, series of conflicting acts that lead up to the resolution and the moment of telegraphed outcomes that are going to be signalled from the opening scenes.

Wild Rose, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)