Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It is the cry of pain that wrestles with experience, the need, the sense of forlorn hope that the person expresses in the act of defiance and denial, the three words Take Me Back are there to remind us that we can never truly capture the feeling that was once deeply ingrained into hearts, seared with a branding iron, stamped with the memory of that we have lost. It is the three words we have all used once in our lives and the ones we remember; perhaps the only time the act of self pity or overwhelming pressure is vocally heard and is meant in its raw and most passionate sense.
For Izzie Walsh it is a sense of beauty wrapped in the gentleness of a yet un-tethered primal scream, that passion ongoing, rippling through the implication of the Gothic mystery she brings to the fore in her latest single. It is a memory perhaps that was once served in songs such as Daddy by Fleetwood Mac, the imploring nature of the act of forgiveness and the significance of a mile stone past when you realise that you are at your most vulnerable.
Izzie Walsh’s Take Me Back though is one that hangs more demurely in the air than the shrill of demand that you might come across in day time soap operas or the whispers of confused adolescence as the tears hit the pillows and the repentance of change is offered. This is a song with heart, the sheer nature of strength wrapped in an enigma, placed inside a mystery but one with clues in the unfurling of the song, that the request of taking back is one that comes with the knowledge that being taken back is not the point, it is not about being willing to change to suit the whim and will of another as they hold the sword of Damocles above your soul. It is the acknowledgement that inside you hope they say no, so you can move on, that is the power that comes from within; letting go and doing it with soft beauty in your voice.
A sublimely attractive song, Take Me Back is the imploring feel of growth; a passionate song that Izzie Walsh captures perfectly.
Ian D. Hall