Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Just Human, there is no such thing as only just human, the very complexity of our being, the ability to raise someone up high or destroy them, to take apart the strands of their life one by one, shows we are more than just a solitary being, we can endure and seek even greater virtue or we can scatter all that is around us to dust.

Just Human, we are capable of so much more, we have within us the power to make something so beautiful that it fills another’s soul with the sense of enlightenment and positivity. It is a series of moments that Nicola Hardman has proved is more than possible, she exemplifies this in her art and in her music and like so many of Liverpool’s “bright young things”, she harnesses the power at her disposal to make your heart weep, sing with joy and look into eyes of the world with renewed hope.

Ms. Hardman’s latest single, Just Human, is a point in which to not only recognise her prowess as a song writer but to laud it, difficult at times to imagine where many of the artists get their inspiration from, with Ms. Hardman she seems to feel the pulse in her blood a little differently, she plays the piano and keys with the sense of mystery and in Just Human there is the acknowledgement that she has in her the same passion that flows throughout the darling of the American female piano led scene Tori Amos.

The music that twists around the song, that wraps itself around the structure of Ms. Hardman’s anger, sorrow and gut wrenched blame, is one that fills your own soul with the damage done in our name but one that has the possibility of redemption there in plain sight, the fury is highlighted, the words almost destructive, but inside them Nicola unleashes hope, a sense of faith that just being Human, with all its flaws and dreams can be reconciled and be seen to create something more than what we achieve now.

A truly stunning single, Nicola Hardman has captured the ethereal and the demonstrative in one fell swoop.

Ian D. Hall