Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It takes a distinguished personality to be a Poozie, to able to reconcile the individual style to the distinctive sound that inhabits the soul of one of Scotland’s much loved folk bands, a trait that is hard to come by, one that is hard to muster and ask to be perfect at the same time and yet when it does so, the Punch that the listener feels is warmth, surrounding exquisiteness and pleasure.

Not all punches have to be laced with bitterness, anger or retaliation, in the velvet glove and the rib rattling tune, the Punch is seen as more of an energetic push to the heart, the beat to the soul and the striking away of preconceptions from the area, from the body that craves the knock about style of The Poozies.

With two new additions to the ranks, Sarah McFadyen and Tia Files, there could be the thought that it would take time to bed in what is half a new section to the band, and yet seamless as is possible, The Poozies have the enviable knack of being a group who requires no settling in time, no months and possibly years of hiding away till the moment arises when the music is in ship Poozie shape, it just comes naturally, poised, arguably flawless and ready to go as many rounds as the listener wishes to go. This is not a quick fire brawl, nor the steady and constant thump of new material finding its feet, this is the serenade of a rare butterfly in the ring with a will to take on the wind and win.

Whether in the tracks Aileen, the superb Soaking, Knees of Fire, Wedding Song or the album’s sublime culmination of Easily Led, Mary Macmaster, Eilidh Shaw, Sarah McFadyen, and Tia Files have created something defining, alluring, going beyond the textbook of how to create splendour in the midst of change; a Punch to the senses, a reminder of the building blocks of Folk and the gravitas of the Gaelic voice, The Poozies return undaunted and full of energy.

The Poozies release Punch on May 18th

Ian D. Hall