Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
To see Patterns where there are none is a propensity that only Humans seem to be able to master with such high definitive skill and yet it doesn’t stop the relationship between the imagination and the unclear from forming, from enveloping itself deep into the psyche. It is that recognition, that connection that forges ideas, theories and the intimate design of logical answers and wild speculation to thrive and give credence to our existence.
For Paul Wilkes the pattern has been obvious all the way through the year, to make 2015 a season of releases that stand out, that utilise the confirmed blueprint set down in River Running With Me, through Take The Sunlight and now into the very heart of Patterns, a combined set of songs that delight the senses and run havoc through the carefully mown grass, the intimate setting of the English pastoral and the sense of powerful divinity that is to be shared and revelled in.
The third and final E.P. of the year by Paul Wilkes also offers the chance to reflect upon how the course of his releases have taken hold, like a series of vignettes, a possible assortment of short tales released from a poet’s mind one by one, the way has been set out and carefully plotted, the relationship forged between musician and listener in steel but offered in a hand guided by a velvet glove. It is a sentimental journey through the year that reminds us that the pattern of life never really sways to far; that the songs remain but like the whispers of leaves on an Evergreen tree, are sought to add colour to existence which can turn bare and fruitless.
The four songs, Patterns, Which Way Is Home and Catch You Whenever You Fall see Paul Wilkes at his very best and especially in Which Way Is Home, the subtlety of performance is overwhelming; the age old question for the nocturnal voyeur who cannot see their way past the dim light offered by the candle of reason, to know where you come from is to understand where you are heading, it is a song that captures so many emotions, fear, panic, trepidation, hope and willingness to surrender that it is impossible to not love it completely.
A fitting end to a great year for Paul Wilkes, a sense of pride at the accomplishment, a fitting epitaph on 2015!
Patterns is released on 23rd November via Poutous Records.
Paul Wilkes will be performing at the Lantern Theatre in Liverpool on Wednesday 25th November. Support will come from The Solid Air’s Mark Byrne.
Ian D. Hall