Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The dawn of a new day, the burst of sunlight upon your face and the aroma of a rose bush hanging in the air is nothing if you don’t face the moment with appreciation, with your senses unlocked to the possibility of calm and joy; from your mind welcoming the new sensation, through to ears receptive of the new storm to the Eyes Wide Open in belief, the dawn of new things is there for the taking.
Eight albums down the road and the terrific Aynsley Lister shows no sign of fatigue, no sign of rust in the fingers that plays a guitar as if being directed by the effortless marvel associated with the supernatural; it is in those fingers that goose bumps are born, that the spine feels the emerging tingle and quiver and the pupils of the eyes widen and become eager to take in the new and exciting.
To have exquisite taste is not an accident, it is refined, it has been through the mud and dirt and comes out the other side with its pride intact and its standards raised, to play the guitar and reach the point of subtle perfection, to add the progressive lyric, the seldom told story in any musical encounter, that is taste and it burns with fire in the veins of Aynsley Lister.
As Aynsley Lister notes during the second song on the album, fortitude is a saving grace of those who know they have a story to tell, that have survived the pressure inflicted upon their souls by meaningless others or by the dark shadow that drives them in their own heart. It is the scream in that darkness that leads to light being switched on and the flooding of illumination into the room.
In the tracks, Everything I Have To Give, Dishevelled, Kaline and Right As Rain, Aynsley Lister takes the muse by the hand and dances into the light with her, allowing the lead to change direction back and forth as each song progresses; it is to wonder if the muse is speeding up the dance, if she wants the subtle gesture of love to become lust and that Aynsley Lister concedes his heart to that inevitability.
Eyes Wide Open is a truly magnificent album, one of strength, valour and victory, an album in which the eyes that are open reflect the soul and heart completely.
Aynsley Lister’s Eyes Wide Open is released on October 7th.
Ian D. Hall