Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There are reasons why the Universe never seems to be in sync with how reality should be perceived; it is a fundamental law that it is lop-sided, askew and quite cruel. Like Time, it offers humanity the barest glimpses of something beautiful and then hides it away from the vast majority of the world and shrouds it in a gilded veil that many will not venture beyond their sofas to see. It is the Universe’s technique of allowing some to be seen as Wasting Away.

One never to be seen wasting away, never to be looked upon as being musically famished is America’s glory Alexx Calise and ahead of her latest album, the single Wasting Away gives a superb insight into the woman who captures many hearts but to whom the Universe deems in all its disquiet to make sure she still remains relatively unknown beyond the realms of the United States and to whom the British public remain unaware of.

It is a true shame that many will have not heard of the woman behind The Sound of Cancer and albums such as In Avanti and yet perhaps with the subtle yet determined sound that emanates across the lead single, Wasting Away might prove to be the springboard needed to have one of most under-rated acts of the last decade be seen for what she is, a woman of true grit and abiding substance.

The song rocks the joints out of their winter apathy, the shaking down of the pre-festive season blues with the sound of the beguiling and yet physically demanding voice which has the ability to send shivers down even the most noblest and sturdiest of spines. It is a song with the undercurrent of the harrowing thrust between its lyrics and the crying out of a spectral shaped guitar lost in the darkness but whose howls are worshiped for what they deliver to the appreciative ears.

Wasting Away is not on the agenda for this American songstress, if anything she has come back bigger and stronger than ever; a song to kick anyone’s apathy out of bed.

Ian D. Hall