Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is a reason we fall in love with someone and it normally has a lot to do with their actions, their demeanour, their faith and hopefully most importantly the way they capture and echo your thoughts in art and their voice resonates how you feel, about yourself, the world and every heartbeat in between.

Roxanne de Bastion, a much loved figure on the Liverpool acoustic scene, understands this, she simply plays the guitar and allows a series of truths to unfold in the audience’s presence, she plays with the notes, she offers the lyrics but it is the listener, the crowd member that finds out how to Run with their imagination unhindered.

Run indeed, a beautiful track, one of sincerity and grace but one that the listener cannot help but feel the slight edge of abandon to, that like world, the future has passed them by and the present has withdrawn its carefully placed comfort and reassuring arm. Roxanne de Bastion holds the torchlight in the dark tunnel, however the world is turning on its side too much for it be held for much longer unless of course you catch up, that you Run harder, engage more, listen without seeking to speak, the warning that the musician offers can only hold you back so long.

The song is everything a fan of Ms. de Bastion could hope for, gentle but with a seismic punch, powerful but with a dutiful kiss attached and with lyrics that want to hit out and smother the illness, the bad hearts and the dissenters to art’s true place in humanity’s affairs, whilst all the time remaining as light as a trail of a smoke from a candle caught in the edge of typhoon.

A gracious song, perfect for our times and with the edge of truth forever ringing in the air, Run is not a sprint, a dart for the likes and social media appetites, it is the steady stream of passion.

Ian D. Hall