Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To disregard the softly spoken in favour of those that rattle like a tin can that is being pushed along by a light breeze down an empty street, is to commit a grievous act, an offence against the soul; it is an attitude that has lasted for as long as humanity has had the wherewithal to listen to supposedly wise men, those who shout loudest, perhaps fearing their ideas and pleasures won’t be heard. It is an position that does us no good, that makes all that we are capable of achieving being nothing more than a side-line, a final swig of the antiseptic before the realisation of what we have swallowed hits home.

Ross Palmer is an artist to whom the softly spoken speaks volumes, a whisper in the wind that catches the ears, that sees the grain waft gentle upon the stalk and which the Last Swallow to leave the hedgerow lifts its head and appreciates the preciseness of the piece before flying off into the sunset.

Ross Palmer’s Last Swallow is captivating, it is serene, and with the addition of Melanie Crew and James McKean on backing vocals on a couple of the tracks and Colin Somervell on the E.P.’s final piece, Ghosts & Echoes, the set of songs has the right to be considered as musically picturesque as a waterfall surrounded by meadows and songbirds, as pristine as a drop of water hanging gently from the bow of a sturdy leaf.

In the songs Separated by Water, Make It Last, Ghosts & Echoes and the E.P. title track, Last Swallow, Ross Palmer digs deep into the soul and performs with an easy voice and gentle demeanour that the message is louder and more appreciative than those who decry and moan as if stuck inside a can, relishing the whip of wind that carries their tin echoing rhetoric onwards. It is to the likes of Ross Palmer that we remember just how convincing the soft velvet voice can be when used correctly, when used as communication and not as instruction.

Last Swallow is an E.P. that is full of discourse, the last whisper in the wind that is bountiful and prestigious.

Ian D. Hall