Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Love is a very strange beast, we think back with fondness at those that have taken us for granted, we adore the rose tinted glasses we wear when we think of those that have let us down and we despair at the thought of those that we have left in search perhaps of a greener field or those that left because they could not bear us; modern love is all the rage but Past Loves are the ghosts that spur us on and define our actions in the present.

Past Loves are important, it matters not how long they were in vogue, how much time was spent, they all add to the story of the individual and in some cases can make that person sparkle with energy and triumph, knowing deep in their heart they have done something at least once that made that old lover smile. It is a sentiment carried with great passion by Sheila K. Cameron in her album Past Loves.

In what is described as a one off performance, Ms. Cameron takes on songs that she has sang with great affection over the years and now, with a timbre in her voice and a resonating smile at her disposal, she takes the memory of love down a path, one that shines a light through the canopy of trees, past the bird song and asks it to rest a while with the image of a corn stalk spritely hanging in the corner of a meadow and the love daring to be kissed.

The tracks also have the edge of bending the appreciation of the words, the use of gender within them, the sense of the woman speaking perhaps not to a lover but to her sex, the call of women all over the world who have been let down by a single person and still for some reason carry a torch that shines brightly in the fog and darkness for them. Like a lighthouse hugging the dangerous rocks of a Cornish cove and coast line, it suggests that the skipper of the previous relationship can still see the call of safety, but woe betide taking advantage for the rocks can also, like a woman scorned, kill with a single look.

In tracks such as Golden Slumbers, Oh The Summertime Is Coming, Every Night When The Sun Goes In, But Black Is The Colour and Drink To Me Only, Ms. Cameron takes on the world, she gives her love in the spirit of the song and sends it into the world knowing, that like a giving and sensual lover, it will always be remembered fondly and with passion.

Ian D. Hall