Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are so few things that are ever truly accidental, most chain of events and progression of cause and effect are designed, perhaps unconsciously but always with the firm result that the person’s life will change because of it. Accidently on Purpose, the eye rolling declaration of the mother who sees her child do the exact opposite of what she has commanded and even the experiment gone haywire in the lab, all have their reason, the effect consuming. In the studio, in the pursuit of sign of elegance and beauty, it is not an accident that comes to mind, but the sheer weight of passion that regales the listener to appreciate the coming together of British Country greats, The Shires, for their third album.
Coming on the back of Brave in 2015 and the sublime My Universe in 2016, Accidently on Purpose would be forgiven if it had every hall mark of what came before, nobody would blame the duo, nobody would perhaps mind, but then laurels only look nice perched upon the person when there is nowhere else to go, when the world has decided the praise is enough.
Laurels like compliments to same as always, grow weary and tired, they soon lose their bloom and resonance over time; refresh the sound, give it an edge, give the music a sense of new discovery, and those laurels become so engrained into the future that a new album, accident or design, cannot but help but be admired, and more importantly desired to be seen as a continuing force of nature.
It is in that force of nature that drives Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes to another level, one that is keenly delivered and in songs such as Echo, Sleepwalk, Ahead of the Storm, Speechless and World Without You, The Shires prove a single truth, you can deliver what the fans want and be recognised, take it a slightly different way, refine and change something, give it an even greater depth before the audience even knows, and they will be astonished.
A wonderfully imagined album, Accidently on Purpose is a treasure trove of the Country genre, written with sheer pleasure and enjoyment in every single musical heartbeat.
Ian D. Hall