Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Falling in love is easy, so much so that almost anybody can do it if they have half a heart, enough hot blood in them and the chance to kiss the muse at least once; the one time kissed Muse though is nothing, she sits quietly at the back of the dance hall with her handbag sat rigid beside her, everybody kisses her, not everybody gets to ravish the Muse and make her fall hopelessly in love with you.
In Rusty Shackle’s latest album Dusk, the Muse has reached a point where not only does she like what is being sang in her name, she considers marriage, the life long bond between musician and the soul, between the heavenly and the blessed and as that semi-opaque light pours in, the glance at the Muse’s early evening smile is plain to see for Dusk is a sensation, a gift in which to turn away from only suggests lack of humanity or a sense of hearing imbalance in which nothing could put right.
Like the long line of light that pokes through the blackness, Dusk is filled with powerful emotions, of an exercise in Folk music which goes way beyond the strangled boundaries that sometimes encompasses the genre and too which Rusty Shackle really get to grips with what is to be seen as pure magic; the offering to the Gods at sunset of needful things into which the hope of a new day arises.
Dusk is an album of complete trust and confidence, organic and pure, containing Welsh fire and the tools in which shaped a nation, Dusk is so much more tantalising than anything offered by the dawn or the call of birds heralding the Sun; this is blaze, passion, the launching of something explosive and it is truly beautiful.
In tracks such as Heart of the Storm, Don’t Look Back, Don’t Look Down, Lonely Lighthouse Life, the exquisite You Are My Lantern, Stolen Letters and Lion in Winter, the album is assured its place in time, a stunningly crafted piece of music, brought to life with overwhelming enthusiasm and more inspiring than witnessing perpetual 24 hour sunlight in every direction.
Class will always out, Dusk is the trigger to allowing the Muse to feel belief.
Ian D. Hall