Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Moments come and go, some are left in the photograph album, untouched, unseen for years, others are loved, their very being able to transport you to a time when perhaps either everything was just how you wanted it to be, or they were painful reminders of what was but ones that now drive you forward, that make sure you have the impetuous to carry you on the next part of your journey and story.
Moments come, depending on how you handle them, how you respect the message they carry, how you respond, and if you feel the goose-bumps start to pop up on your flesh, if you get the impression that someone is blowing softly on the back of your neck, then you should pay attention to the way that the wind is whispering, subtly imploring you take heed, to listen to a word from a different place.
It is a wind that brings Pete Williams back for another round of highly enjoyable, and inspiring, music with the deftness of lyrics that would make a poet gnash their teeth in jealous repose, of the simplicity of the image created and the fascination of the depth in the story that appears in tandem with it. It is a wind that blows across country, that has its roots in the days of Mr. William’s early career with Dexy’s Midnight Runners, through the pre-renovation days of Birmingham and with it seems H.O.L.L.A.N.D. firmly on his mind.
Simple songs told well stick with the listener in a way that the convoluted and experimental don’t, the genius of the Progressive may have some search for hidden meanings and the runes of the spilled musical bones, but the unpretentious, clear-cut message that comes through in the songs of Pete Williams is a joy to behold, their own weaving tale of ingenuity, of intimacy, of a love perhaps once scorned but welcomed back with open arms and thoughts of rekindled passion, this is what draws the listener to H.O.L.L.A.N.D., this is what makes the evening appreciation of the day so cool.
In songs such as Wind Whispers, Caledonia, Twists of Fate, Twice Around The Bend, Photograph, So Far So Good and On A Night Such As This, Pete Williams and the band of players, Dean Beresford, Laurence Saywood, Shaz Sheridan, Andrew Wellings, David Glover, Ian Hopkinson, Clive Mellor, all bring musical peaks and wonderful intricate summits to mind, it is an album that shines because the artist understands that life can be simple if we wish it to be, that the songs we sing should be of days remembered with family, of loved ones, a musical offering to the ancestors gone, to the children yet to come.
Moments appear like dancing shadows on a cave wall, it is how we interpret them which makes the world turn with the thrill of a new song respected.
Ian D. Hall