Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
They say live music is in trouble, that the venues are closing down and the ones that stay open are only there for the niche markets and the out and out cover bands. Yes, it is hard to disagree with the fact that more venues have shut their doors for the last time but live music is not dead, it is breathing healthily, what it requires is the care and duty bound honour of going in search of something new, a band or an artist starting out to whom might never see the inside of a mega sized arena, that what they are doing it for is the special bond of the acoustic set or the desire of Electric Love.
The double live C.D. houses some absolute gems and moments of outstanding creative beauty, with a voice to die for and Alec McElcheran, Sly Coulombe, Ricky Paquette and Denis Coulombe, Angel Forrest takes the Centre des Juliette-Lassonde venue in Quebec’s St-Hyacinthe by storm. Vocals that both takes you down the route of deserving submission but also that cradle your soul long into the night, songs such as Spoil Me Up, Move On, Hold On Tight, Mr I’m Alright, Mother Tongue Blues and Bobby Mcgee, and when placed in the company of the stirring cover of the Animal’s House of the Rising Sun, what the listener is left with is breathless admiration, a conquered love of The Blues in the hands of a woman who just carries all before her.
There is nothing like hearing the appreciation of a crowd from a town that you might never see, but one that you might one day come across, or at least one very much like it, one that holds the same respect for the genre that you might possess in your heart, one that you know is screaming for your attention as much as it is for the performers on hand.
The beauty of the realised and well captured live gig is one in which you can imagine yourself being part of, it doesn’t need to be a 20,000 capacity crowd to get the juices flowing, it could just be a handful of people in a bar in a no-name town in the middle of state or province, what matters is the passion, is the ability to make a dozen people or an arena full of patrons sing their heart out in unison. In this Angel Forrest succeeds with authority, with gravitas and with a style that reminds the listener of hearing someone like Joe Cocker for the first time, of hearing Janis Joplin sing the Blues.
Electric Love is a glorious piece of live recording, one in which to feel the pang of jealousy at not being in the audience on the day but one that comes with the swift return to serenity in the knowledge that you have heard one of the great live recordings of the last decade. Simply awesome!
Ian D. Hall