Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Some album names just give off the aura of invincibility, of the passion of the place or city they are emulating or trying to evoke. American cities pretty much have the upper hand in this compared much of Europe in terms of 20th and 21st Century Western culture. Scarborough in England certainly captures a state of mind with a certain generation and various places in London can tickle the imagination but American cities jump down the throat of the listener and New York City perhaps arguably jumps further and lands harder than any other city on Earth.
From Frank Sinatra to Genesis, from Billy Joel to Duke Ellington via the beauty of Stephen Sondheim to the depth offered by Simon and Garfunkel, all place New York City as the defining place on Earth in which to write about. There really is so much to write about the city that doesn’t even take the occasional nap in its vibrant dotage that it should be no surprise that musical lyrics tend to gravitate there. They sparkle in the brash descriptions of Broadway, of the sometimes sleazy feel that emanates from Times Square and the complete feel of finding yourself immersed in a place that has many admirers but no true equal.
It should also be no surprise that Risa Hall should place the thoughts of the listener deeply into the heart of the Manhattan sky-line, of the view to end all man-made constructed views and bring the listener to a part of her life that she very obviously still loves despite making her home in the U.K.
New York Nights is a blossoming flower of an E.P. caught at the fullest and most delicate point of the day, the ray of sunshine that brings it to life and cultivated by the lyrically attraction of a woman at ease with her subject matter. The graciousness of a nymph shadowing her love but knowing not to be drawn too close in case the neon lights spark and bring the light of Lady Liberty baring down upon the rampaging waters that guard the boroughs of the city.
New York Nights is about a love, not just of the city of New York but also of the life that inhabits each person and in the sensational Age of Availability, the thought of a woman at the peak of her attractiveness but damaged by slander of those that could not get her too love them is the perfect allegory to how many view New York, they see the bad, the feel of the festering bleakness but not the poise in which the ideal was built upon and certainly not the inscription that sits on the stone tablet by the cold French mistress.
Risa Hall continues to impress in this E.P. and with the additional support of Matthew Berry, Adam Fielding, Jim Duff, Victoria Martin, Daniel J. Logan and Emma Danielle Walker, she makes the listener fall in love with a place they might never see for themselves but can imagine perfectly.
Ian D. Hall