Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Blue is the very best kind of colour, you might paint it black, you can feel the anger and fury of red but at the end of the day, the emotion of blue always brings out the sweetest king of feeling; the reminisce, the heartache, the glimmer of hope wrapped up in the beauty of melancholy, such sweet sorrow is always serenaded with passion.

Emily Barker understands that melancholy is a Sweet Kind of Blue, that the song has to be driven other than something hanging on to a false smile and the insincere gratitude but also has to be grounded to be humbling, that as a listener when you take stock of the words and sit in the deep reflection of someone else’s soul, sometimes you can only be quiet, no words can ever truly capture the heart beat.

The resident of Stroud makes her vibrant stand in her first full album release since 2013 and it is one that truly engages with the listener, that not only suggests that love needs to be felt deeply and not as a fleet-footed passenger running around an airport terminal looking for the best destination to try out next; love requires time and energy, something the passenger does not have.

Sweet Kind of Blue is ultimately satisfying, it is heart breaking yet life affirming and as the fantastic song Over My Shoulder carries with it the crescendo of a promise, of the dying wish, so to do the rest of the tracks meld and strengthen the desire to glimpse more.

In the songs Sister Goodbye, If We Forget to Dance, Underneath the Honeymoon and the album title track Sweet Kind of Blue, Emily Barker stands tall, she captivated and teases the moment in which the muse holds her hand and like us all, never wishes to replace it with anything other than affection and pleasure.

An album in which the artist suggests sweet is blue, well in fact sweet is human, to be blue is feel emotion and compassion, and for Ms. Barker a Sweet Kind of Blue is nothing short of hauntingly beautiful.

Ian D. Hall