Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The very real tragedy that exposes the way humanity deals with a subject it doesn’t like is to sweep it under the carpet. They disown it, they move the subject along, they make excuses or pat it on the head, saying how terrible it all is, before moving swiftly on to talk about how much their home is now worth. For those in society who suffer the effects of mental illness, no matter how or to what degree, at times it does really feel as if the world is not just against you, it is actively campaigning to shut you up and move on. Nobody actually says anything constructive to get the ball rolling as a topic of conversation, not unless you count Forthaven and their brand new single The People of the World.
What makes The People of the World a beautiful and important piece of musical history is the haunting, downright chilling effect that Emma Rose has on the vocals. They ooze mournfully out with such emotion, such sentiment, that it is impossible not to think of the agony that is felt by all those touched by any degree of mental illness as they battle against prejudice and ignorance.
The battle cries of a hundred thousand wrongly accused soldiers who found they could no longer fight, the weary, the ones driven to breakdown by what they see in the cruelty of humanity or those who just about cope with the knowledge that they are different to those around them, that the slightly off-kilter, off balance looks they receive do a multitude of harm and the constant questioning and damaging remarks such as “Why can’t you just be happy” for example don’t break barriers, they further enhance them.
It is a brave single that Forthaven have put out, in an enlightened age in which generations across the board are being urged to talk about everything and anything they desire, the spectre, the hang-over of a judgemental Victorian society still hangs over the need for real understanding like a thunder storm hanging over a single solitary weeping willow in a discarded and unloved field.
With the band having expanded from a production company to a full scale group, there will be no doubt that there will be more to come from Emma Rose, Helen Brown, Alistair Ligertwood and of course Jay Roberts. For now though, The People of the World is a hell of a starting point in which to compare other future music against.
Ian D. Hall