Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *
Smooth comes in eras, just like every word in the English language, its connotation changes with the times, its use of fashionable deployment in certain arenas and sentences can be implied with good intent and praise or can be damning, the undertone of sarcasm firmly attached to the point where it hard to block the kicking forever.
Smooth though is a word that should always be meant with the upmost of gravitas, the respect afforded the finest of single malt whisky, the long plane journey to loved ones, the first kiss in a teenager’s life, smooth should always suggest a certain level of attainable beauty that is never forgotten, one that is silk, suave and even Mysterious; it is a implication that should always be said with grace when thinking of Marti Pellow.
Marti Pellow’s latest album is that mysterious smooth, one of level headed demeanour, the single malt never wasted but savoured beside a warm glowing fire in which random shapes expose themselves within the flickering framework of bricks and shadows; Mysterious is the unexpected delivery of a man who has known lows but whose highs have been magnificent and above what could be expected from a life, any life.
Mysterious is the type of album where you might urge someone to put it on their stereo and know full well that they just won’t listen it, they will with hunger, devour it completely, it is the smoothness of the songs that make them so accessible but also the undercurrent, the things unsaid in the lyrics, keep them on tenterhooks; it is the equivalent of a love letter from someone you have not seen in years but whose scent catches you by surprise and the lack of a firm I love you at the end sends you searching for more, the mystery always in the shadows.
With songs such as Connection, Sunrise Never Fails, It’s You, Three Wishes and You Got Me By the Heart, Marti Pellow sings of love in the best way possible, his mystery may be solved and out there but it is one offered with fire and persuasion, there is not a word wasted, no time lost, just a man who understands the complexity of love and who will look you in the eyes as he sings to your own enigma.
A wonderful album by Marti Pellow, one of sincerity and openness, Mysterious is unfailing in its duty to the listener.
Ian D. Hall