Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 71/2/10
Human Life, so breakable, so unstable and at times the mental and physical can be held in uncertain terms, so much so to talk of the condition, to place the frailty out in the open can make people turn away through embarrassment, mainly as they struggle to understand why anyone would want to push the human thought that far, or because they feel threatened by someone reaching out to them. Whatever the reason, Michael Rattray captures the emotion of tender Humanity wonderfully in Human Life.
It is possible to think of Humanity as a dwindling, almost extinct trait in many, it seems to go hand in hand with economic slowdowns or Depressions, the less someone has the more they hide in their shell and refuse to put their head above the sandbags, they refuse to see the carnage out in no man’s land. For Michael Rattray there is no choice, what he exposes through Human Life is the need to understand what happens to you then will inevitably happen to the next person, the dominoes will continue to fall uninterrupted and with heavy heart.
Through each delicately performed note, the listener is able to perceive something understandable and right about Michael Rattray. This is not a musician who hides behind words, who cowers in the face of being accused of wearing his heart on his sleeve for the images he provokes and the thoughts of the human condition he makes the listener pay attention too. When you believe in the indomitable human spirit, the belief that separates us from the uncaring, selfish and heartless, then how can you but not wear your heart on the sleeve as well as the rest of the shirt also.
With tracks such as the superb The Ghost of Nick Drake, the emptiness of Life Without Love, Here Comes the Silence and a very classy cover of the Suzanne Vega song The Queen and The Soldier, Michael Rattray shows the callous and indifferent that to be able to pour your feelings out, to reel at times but come out fighting is not a sign of weakness but one of solid strength.
Human Life may be a fragile, almost precarious at times but it is precious and like its name sake on the album should be valued and handled with great care.
Ian D. Hall