Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
You only notice the heat of your life when The Wind Blows By to shake the feeling of emotional swelter from what has been your existence so far; a cool wind of realisation, or rationale and the chance to savour the cordiality with one’s soul, it is all that is required to feel the calm breeze lift your spirits and reflect upon what is important and what is but a tempest you cannot control.
Joy follows Joey Costello throughout his new collection of songs that make up the E.P. The Wind Blows By. It is a cordial, kind moment of four tracks that highlight the different experiences we can face, that empathises with the feelings we shoulder when the metaphorical sun beats down too harshly and how we can alter the mood, how we must be able to challenge the demon that roasts us alive.
The four songs, Where I Long To Be, Butterfly, In Your Eyes and the E.P. title track, The Wind Blows By, are wonderfully easy on the soul at first listen, but investigating further, toasting the sun with rare vintage champagne as your realise you can take refuge in the cool winds from the north, they display a serene calmness that is tempered with longing emotion, a darkness that we all cultivate and nourish from time to time, even if it is remains unspoken, even when it lingers long after the wind has blown the heat away.
From the rawness of looking deep In Your Eyes and the feeling of natural oneness with the world that comes in the title track, Joey Costello becomes the breath of the wind, not just feeling it lower the temperature of his own life as he writes out the demons; but imploring us in a delicate fashion to follow suit, to let his breathe guide in the same way that his lyrics lead.
A marvellous and succinct pleasure, a set of songs that get to grips with the idea of letting go all that in the end doesn’t matter when compared to your own well-being.
Joey Costello will be performing at 81 Renshaw Street in Liverpool on Saturday 7th July.
Ian D. Hall