Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Optimism is infectious, it takes you down roads you might never have imagined ever taking, of the street of possible security, through the avenue of seeing a dream unfold and take root; it is an emotion though that is hard to handle, difficult to control and unless reigned back, tempered with the pitfalls and consequences that the search and the hope in what Paradise Will Be.
Drew Jarvie and Steve Barker’s The Delerium Trees is the burgeoning of optimism, the flowering of the buoyant balloon of sanguinity and it is one that is universally recognised when thought of in the context of a new love. Hope comes when the blossom first appears on the tree, it is relished and loved until the fruit turns brown, when the clouds of indifference comes along and puts perspective into the shade. The tree being made to feel awkward, unhealthy, despised; it is what Paradise Will Be when allowed to rot and uncared for, when it is not given room to breathe and be seen to enjoy the elation and happiness due.
Paradise is subjective, what is one person’s apple is another’s talking reptile, it is in the same in the relationship between two people, when they don’t pull the same way it puts strain on the boat, the oars can be lost and soon Heaven can be so far out of sight that the talkative snake finds way to sell its protection racket with bumped up monthly payments. Paradise though, if attained, can be the sense of beauty in which we all seek, it may takes lots of drawn up plans, and on the odd occasion even re-building, but Paradise is available, it just takes belief.
In songs such as the album title track Paradise Will Be, Here Comes The Day, The Lonely Hearts Club Meet Again, Winter Skies In Summer time and Back Through The Door, Drew Jarvie and Steve Barker play with Paradise as living entity, giving it respect but also understanding that such a notion perhaps does not exist fully in our minds, that it is a sense of the peripheral and hope that we wish to see bear fruit.
A wonderfully balanced album, Paradise is what you make it, Paradise Will Be.
Ian D. Hall