Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There is something deep down that makes anyone with even just a smidgen of adventure or human spirit welling up under the surface of composed reassurance that wouldn’t want, even for a short while, to be the hero of the hour, the person of the moment or even the V.I.P. entering the room.

For Scottish performer Findlay Napier, the inspiration seems to have come easy when looking at what a V.I.P. actually means. Not for him the idea of someone who perhaps runs a country or who has managed to bring revenue into the country via the means of the banking system or organised piracy in the days of Elizabeth, but those that live life in such an extraordinary way, whose stories enthral us more than the so called models of society who parade and preen their wares in a sort of attention seeking soul driven way but those whose tales are retold with more beauty and a smile than they could perhaps have imagined in life.

Co-written and produced by the superb Boo Hewerdine, VIP Very Interesting Persons combines ten hugely original and wonderfully crafted songs of reverence and homage to the spirit of humanity, even if they are people that you might balk at the idea of meeting face to face. To be interesting though is a prized asset in life; to have managed to keep away from a life covered in beige and the banality of dull inducing boredom is to be praised and lauded. Findlay Napier captures this idea fully and breathes life into stories that you may half remember or have never been introduced too as life takes you away from such people of greater influence than someone who has spent a carrier carving out policy away from the public gaze.

Humour is all when relating a tale, it matters not if the subject is so serious it could curdle the blood, it just has to be as interesting as the person the song is about. With songs such as Hedy Lamarr, the tantalising weaving tale of The Man Who Sold New York, What A Shame About George, Rising Son, Valentina and the outrageously addictive The Sport of Kings being performed with diligence and care, as well as the crafty imagined smile that strides throughout the album like a legendry folk hero robbing the rich somewhere in the east Midlands,  VIP Very Interesting Persons is arguably the first sensational album of 2015 to be fully deserving of full marks all round.

Attention grabbing from the start, VIP Very Interesting Persons is a full on, crowd pleasing, demon of an album. Caress with care, as out of the ordinary people don’t come along all that often.

Ian D. Hall