Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Your own personal rapture, the moment of exquisiteness that defines a life and the dynamism of the heralding of the call up to the table you have long wanted to be at. The first painting sold, the debut poem that gets applause or the E.P that signals that all that went before was indeed true and not damned by plastic smiles and the faint whiff of sulphur from fork tongued mouths; This Rapture is to be believed and seen as the stepping stone to audience enthusiasm and one that is a palpable heart stirring prospect.
A rapture, a rhapsody in style, an eagerness wrapped in the voice that has the ability to capture the heart, kiss it gently and then without warning, tug it completely out of the chest and burn it infront of you; all the while you are smiling with satisfaction, love at first hearing can be a confusing feeling at the best of times but one that gallops relentlessly to its own high class finish when the sound is beautiful enough.
This Rapture sees Brooke Bentham’s latest E.P. is breathtakingly atmospheric, like the effect of the Moon upon the awaiting seas below, the swells and dramatic tumbling of notes have the listener hanging on the words that accompany the arguably sensuous and beautifully presented arrangement. It is those words, guiding, full of passion and from the very pit of Ms. Bentham’s soul, that make the songs Have To Be Around You, If I Was Dead, Losing, Baby, Why We Fall and Solo so accessible that they practically show you round the estate and the grounds before you have even turned up the volume.
That is not to say that the songs have a pedestrian feel, those grounds are surrounded by the most elaborate of mazes in which the listener’s emotions are drawn into, the passages hiding rose thorns in which to prick the consciousness, soft petals to lure you further in. It is a maze that has no confusion, just one that carries the listener’s thoughts to another place, one away from their own and into a different sphere of belief for a while.
A wonderfully positive album, adept, skilled and a great experience; This Rapture is a movement that has been worth waiting for.
Ian D. Hall