Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Life may start with a whimper, the incoherent but immediate call of a child searching in the new and bright artificial light but it soon becomes a tornado, an outpouring of experiences and the feeling of strange emotions that entwine themselves deep into the reservoir of the soul. It is the same feeling that one can hopefully attain when listening to a new album for the first time, the gentle beginning of a strummed guitar playing leisurely in the stream of time and letting the riptides take you where they must, where they tenderly insist that the listener’s heart strays.

In Chris Cleverley’s debut album, Apparitions, the ghosts of sentiment, the haunting beauty behind every spectre and phantom and delicate brush with the strings of the guitar hark back to a time when the subtle was not dismissed easily and the mere power employed was not tarnished by the insubstantially devoid of imagination.

There is a certain grace that sits within the songs to be found on Apparitions, a persuasion of poise that keeps ticking over and throughout each perfectly edged note, not so much polished but buffed, smoothed over and finished with appreciation that comes across fully and with honour. ]

There are many reasons to feel the relaxed form that Chris Cleverley employs, the harnessing of the darkness of spirit and the light of fulfilment but in songs such as The Dawn Before The Day, the excellent abandonment of Missing Persons, the balanced cool of I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground and Life Is Elsewhere, the self–contained surrender to the inevitable is something that cannot and should not be avoided.

There is a passion that is heartening on this full album debut, a reminisce to the glory of the likes of Ed Harcourt which should be celebrated and enjoyed for every minute that the album is played on the stereo.

Some Apparitions are opaque and painfully see through, Chris Cleverley’s is substantial and full of body and soul; a tremendous debut in every sense and one that is full of spirited belief.

Ian D. Hall