Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Thanks to the inclusion of the many various disguises and themes that social media takes on, what we once fought to keep hidden inside has become an overgrowth of sharing, our deepest thoughts, our reasoned concerns, the fantasies, the issues, the dogma we carry around has become a playground in which we seek out likes, confrontation and like-minded individuals to rally to our cause; what was once held so precious and away from prying eyes, has become in reality mysteries of ourselves let loose, naked and alone, it seems They’re Not Secrets Anymore.

We may have done Government’s work for them but in the last of the restless, the savannah in which the Last Wild Lion of Edinburgh resides, secrets are more than offerings to the gods of social media, to the moguls of capital fortune who see profits and sales in every digital word we let loose, they are confidences whispered to the great and the glorious listener, the subtle twists of vocal praise and joined in by the choir of guitar, bass, violin, keys and drums; it is not a betrayal of the mystery within in, the enigma that sets apart from the rest of the world, more of a seismic release which brings about surprising change, but which never deceives its intentions.

In Sarah Monteath, Neil Fergusson, Jamie Monteath, Lewis Rumney and Andrew Scott, the Last Wild Lion roars with an anger of such a scale that the savannah shakes with anticipation from the first opening note and through to the final flourish, the countdown of expression between, one of desire, a pulse rapid and filled with petrol driven acceleration.

In songs such as Secrets With The Moon, This Is Everything, Sky Lantern, Before I Knew You, Worse At Night and Miracles, a feeling of the burgeoning epic begins to appear before the senses of the listener, information is seized, gleaned over, processed, but for all the sharing of inner band musings, the relief of truth is real, it is captivating, and wonderfully, a little bit fearsome.

An audience doesn’t need to know everything about you all at once, let the soul divulge what it must a layer at a time, in that the longevity and the stories you wish to impart become a richer tapestry of potential expression, a secret that Last Wild Lion exclaim with precision in They’re Not Secrets Anymore.

Ian D. Hall