Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Flick the coin in the air and watch as it either comes down heads or tails, whether it comes down in your favour or against you, either way the only thing you can do is watch, be patient and hope that, should the smile of the gods not look your way then perhaps next time, or the time after that, you might call correctly and see the side of the coin you wish to see. It is an aspect of life that many don’t quite understand the philosophy of, that the world owes you nothing and that Sometimes You’ve Got To Lose.

We all have to deal with the agony and the extasy, with the shortfall and the abundance, it is how you perceive the presentation of such a windfall of fortune that suggests, decrees, what sort of person or artist you are. It is not a worry in many ways for Liverpool’s Ladies, for as the coin spins in the air, the very act of calling out a side seems inconsequential, for in their music what comes across is balance, positivity, creative enjoyment and above all the knowledge that it is not always about the head or the tail landing down on the back of the inquisitive hand, sometimes it is the forbearance to instinctively know that the coin will land upon its side and how to act upon it.

Ladies’ new single, Sometimes You’ve Got To Lose, is that gentle reminder that the pop song, in any guise it fancies taken, is very much alive and well, it might find itself battling against the dumb founded and brittle, but it will come up smiling, grounded its belief, played with passion by a band who have built up their reputation with honour and to whom the very act of performing comes down to calling sides more often than others would think possible or wise; what do they know, the disappointment always rankles in their hearts, the highs too crazy and unstable.

In Ladies, there is trust, the coin spins, and the ethos is born out; yes – Sometimes You’ve Got To Lose, but not always and for Ladies, every day with this song in your mind and the groove pleasingly set out, it is always a winning combination.   

Ian D. Hall