Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is not enough to just listen to a song or an album and exclaim that it is a great tune before going onto the next one like a rampaging and overweight bee flying across a field of enticing and wanton flowers, its mind constantly changing as each delicate bloom offers a different aroma, a different smell in which for the bee to get giddy about. It is not enough to listen to music as a background noise when placing the Sunday roast out for people to devour, music should always have a degree of empathy attached to it; both on the receiving and the offering of each and every track somewhere Down The Line.

In Glasgow’s Johny Corrigan’s latest album, the over whelming sense of empathy is startling. It is a series of songs that have compassion written through them and the occasion for each one to rise up and be counted is not lost upon the listener as they in turn are forced to deal with emotions that come from the sharp and detailed observations of Johny Corrigan and his fellow musicians as they offer their own invaluable interpretation of the lyrics provided.

Aided by the likes of Alan Thompson, the wonderful John McCusker and Pete Harvey and with the delicious backing vocals of Heidi Talbot on certain tracks, Johny Corrigan weaves a spell over the listener as they make their way through the album. It is though not an album which relies one bit on the act of enchantment but instead on a truth placed into the lyrics that breaks the heart but also stands for something more, something concrete and distinctive and in tracks such as Let It Shine, If I Had, the excellent You Ran and the flourish that imposes itself on the song A Little Sign, Johny Corrigan asks the listener to feel the empathy, to understand the truth of such a reaction and without any hesitation, the heart will comply.

A very generous album in terms of quality and flowing melody, a superb offering by one that could be defined as a new Glasgow hero.

Ian D. Hall