Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
You can quote the Bard as often as you like, for arguably nobody has captured the human condition as well as the man from Stratford-Upon-Avon, no person will perhaps understand the frailty, hate, suspicion, love, despair and mischief in a person’s heart as William Shakespeare. If you know that he recognised that we prevaricate between the choice of light and dark, of proud assurance and tame compliance, then it is hardly surprising that we as a species find it a pleasure to see the fortune of Slings and Arrows as they hit home and the way we overcome them, that we can, should the heart be true, oppose all obstacles that come our way.
If nobody can compare to the greatest ever writer the English language has produced, then the least we can do in return is to be able to channel, challenge and throw down the gauntlet of expression, find a way to convey the message that we wish to impart and tame our own sea of troubles, to sail unencumbered by storms and underwater rocks, and only occasionally give in to the siren as she calls out with a whispered song.
Michelle Malone’s own Slings and Arrows are ones that hit home, the target? the listener’s heart, the mind in which such compassion and joy can be found; and it is a mark which is pierced with focus and a great sense of American pride, one that has never relented across a huge range and searing output of albums.
In tracks such as Love Yourself, Sugar On My Tongue, Fox and the Hound, Matador and Boxing Gloves, Ms. Malone takes up the challenge and with feminine intrigue and the force of all the vocal weaponry at her disposal, she brings forth a new set of songs that are bewitching and nestling within the quiet fury of a woman ready to fight for her right to be heard again.
It is a fight that you cannot but help to throw your hands up in surrender, knowing you have heard someone to whom you owe all to, for in the slings she has not put rocks and pebbles with edges to cut and maim with, but soft sentiment of beauty and a cushioned rounded edge to the arrow.
A marvellous album performance, one of great design and of a wonderful captive nature.
Ian D. Hall