Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In between each song we sing out loud there is either emptiness or delight, the applause associated with finding our own groove or the bleak vacant response that comes with not understanding that the silence is also a gesture, one of defiance and the urge to let peace take hold; it is a trait, a mystery, a calmed hush that often precedes a glory in spirit. It is in that preceding hush that SheBeat, a captivating soul at all times, brings forth her latest E.P. into the world and it is one in which the noticeable change in demeanour is overwhelming and marvellously exciting to hold onto.

This is what it Feels Like to hear someone in a mode of happiness, that the music they offer has been taken quite deliberately to another level, a different part of their soul in command of the output and whilst some painfully point out that a musician can only truly deliver when they express pain or disillusionment. SheBeat, the exclusive Jodie Schofield, bucks that trend, takes it apart and sends it out in letters to all who may have ever doubted her; this is a woman who makes the feeling of serene incredibly beautiful.

The songs on Feels Like are warm, inspiring, gentle to the touch but with a bite that nips if you try to appease the musician with platitudes of grief; this is not that type of E.P., deeply personal yes but one that comes alive with sparkling personality and hope, not one that others might take down the road in which they lay with crossed fingers and stone like breath.

In the songs Rainproof, Yours Sincerely, Until Now and Hairy Boy Blues, SheBeat almost frolics in the open air of baring her soul, not one for ever missing an opportunity to take on the air of desolation that grips many of her friends, these songs instead are abundant in their creative radiance. It is a joy that you cannot help but feel, that cries out to be considered as a caress from a caring friend.

SheBeat moves in mysterious and cunning ways, always a pleasure to listen too, a sincere soul to admire, this latest set of songs mark her out in a different stance in life and frankly it is with a sense of delight that they have been poured into one E.P.

Ian D. Hall