Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
A person’s confession, is in itself, an act of self sacrifice, a demand for reason to become clear, to allow the possible misjudgements imposed by others, to become evident and to lay down the individual’s own thoughts and deeds, not to be hampered by society, convention or false dawn of other’s statements.
It is in the confession, readily heard in art but rarely at the dispatch box, that we find the deed, the merit and value of the person. The confession, the declaration that what the person thinks of their soul, is how we should see their Worth. To see a man homeless, to see a woman begging on the streets for food to feed her children, to see pictures of the lonely and forgotten in care homes, unloved and untouched, these are the disgraceful scenes in the modern world that makes our own self worth eaten and chewed, to see our soul die a little each time, and if it doesn’t then our own self worth should be viewed as unredeemable.
What profits a man…what it should be is the freedom to express themselves in the way that they see fit, to have their dreams and aspirations of having their voice heard and their mind known and for Nigel Powell and his solo venture The Sad Song Co., what is Worth is more than the mere symbol of profit, it is passion wrapped in poignancy and delivered with the bow of sincere and unflinching resolution.
In tracks such as I Don’t See It, Lonely Is A State Of Mind, The Body Beautiful, Wounded Lion and the phenomenal Worth My Bones, The Sad Song Co. is resolute, the songs overflowing with undeniable drama and which makes the album sit down and implore that we don’t judge others for the lives that have been led; it is impossible to understand what makes a person do the things they do, it is only reasonable to empathise rather than damn.
Confession is good for the soul, it makes us realise what we have been fighting for, whether it is our own voice and thoughts to be heard and allowed to resonate in another’s conscious, or just the chance to be absolved for seeing the world in a different way; for what it is Worth, it is the best feeling possible.
The Sad Song Co. release Worth on February 9th 2018.
Ian D. Hall