Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Enlightenment comes in many forms, it can be deafening, it can be as silent as the ghost of a wind travelling up a river estuary, the only ripple that can be discerned is that as the breeze ruffles the ears of corn or disturbs the water; enlightenment may suggest itself at that point where even if you didn’t feel the gust then all around you certainly did.
Enlightenment is also a clarification, a further explanation to how something was first keenly felt can be continued, how it can be furthered and made to prosper; it is in The Illumination of Everything that shows the way forward and for Runcorn’s The Fireflys, the way is true, straight and requires no justification of why it is an enjoyable piece of musical art.
The Fireflys have expanded their ranks and the way they have achieved it makes the new album stand out as impressive and full of flowing, generous character; it is a reason to celebrate as the music overwhelms with calm precision the listener, for in the line up, the strength of feminine guile brings the group into a realm that might have been left in the semi-illumination of a sweet caress.
Lee Wylding, Ellen Stott, Andie Packer and Chris Tann bring so much to the new album that the flowing embers shed the cloak of mystery and disorder that can come across in other bands who find themselves being one of a handful in a town and instead they offer a command that brings them into the same vein of thought of those groups that stretch west across the Runcorn Bridge.
In tracks such as When We Were Younger, Branches, Time Did This To Us and Angels Of The North, The Fireflys sense of command is incredibly direct, it teases a sense of beauty and arrangement which is both dramatic and full of promise; it is a promise that has come about by the expansion of the group and of the sound.
The Illumination of Everything, is desire and longing, a healthy mix of great lyrics and a group rising to the challenge to entice and light up the listener’s life.
The Fireflys’ The Illumination of Everything is released on April 18th via Canadia Records.
Ian D. Hall