Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
If all roads lead to Rome, then does the River Mersey beckon with its delicate welcoming sound of its history and people and toss and crash of its deep blue water for musicians far and wide to take residence beside its shores and bring something of their talent and then infuse the artist’s natural gift with something solid, something incredible? Many it seems are called to Liverpool, countless are even chosen and the city of absolute culture embraces them, for Thom Morecroft, a man from the wilds of Shropshire, and his album Moon Moon Shake It, it seems that enticing wink from the Mersey has captured a man who will not let anything stand in his way.
The sound of Thom Morecroft’s acoustic guitar and airy bass alongside the addition of the beautiful female vocals by Elle Schillereff, Chris Cousineau’s percussion and James Baxter’s guitar make Moon Moon Shake It an album that even the great Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac fame proud to have recorded. Such is the incredible similar presence between the two men, the distinguished way the vocals interact with the music but never letting either dominate or override exclusively is a joy and a very accomplished act to have captured on the recording.
The teasing anger, the full on passion that is framed by each song and superb lyrics are volleyed around as if attached to a tennis ball being played back and forth in the longest point played at Wimbledon. Each track shows the enthusiastic zeal, the fervency of musical obsession and the gritty determination to keep the passion flowing throughout. Whether the album title track, the superb Daisy, the insistence of Wilted Gardens or the honesty of I Am A Tiny Man there is no stopping the craving the listener will feel as they play this recording over and over again.
Thom Morecroft may have followed the sound of the exotic river calling him north from the wilds and serenity of Shropshire but he has more than built bridges in which to carry his music upon in the future. With Moon Moon Shake It, those bridges are sturdy and exceptional.
Ian D. Hall