Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
There are just too many roads in which we are being pushed, urged to have an opinion, prodded by seemingly self appointed social dictators who cannot wait to prove us wrong or that what we do in life is somehow unacceptable to them; those roads may not always a steady footpath, there may occasionally be the stumbling blocks, the cordoned off pavements where weeds and dangerous insects reside but those roads are there to provide you with the means to say I will Change My Game and be utterly magnificent.
Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado had no need to change their game, the band’s previous album, Too Many Roads, was nothing short of sublime and more than enough music held deep in it to hold anybody’s interest for several days at a time, however the presence they have created on this album is one that has raised the roof, taken the slip road onto a motorway and is heading full throttle towards a type of greatness that rarely gets the appreciation deserved.
This album of Mustang performance, of simple elegance but with the big hefty shoulder behind it, is compelling, darkly alluring, an album that takes you to the very edge of the shadows, shows you the light burning bright and then keeps you safe from over exertion and observation. It is the very finest of finger snapping and dynamic cool and it is one that arguably will be the seen as an early pinnacle in the career of Thorbjørn Risager.
Change My Game, not perhaps one that the musician had to do but still it is fascinating to witness the rise and sacrifice in which people are willing to make when the muse calls round for a splash of Scotch and inspiration. In tracks such as the album opener I Used To Love You, Holler ‘N’ Moan, Long Gone, Train and Lay My Burden Down, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado sky rocket into a different hemisphere than they may have been used too; this is pure and absolute, a crafted album that sweats, pulses and pounces on the listener and too whom the listener receives with open tender arms.
A fabulous album, a game changer, Change My Game is the next step in a long road of driving.
Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado’s Change My Game is released on January 27th 2017.
Ian D. Hall