Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
We see the Muse as a physical body, imagined perhaps with the ideals we seek out in those that make our hearts quicken, even skip a beat, as they call out like sirens held close between the rocks of sharpened perception, and the rough seas of hope that is always present, but which can turn to despair and take us down to the depths of our soul’s resilience. The Muse is painted as such to appeal, to make us recognise the human value in artistic pursuit, but sometimes it would be worth stepping back and seeing the Muse as something else entirely, as a place rather than a human being.
We all profess our love for many cities and towns, but only a certain lover of a distinct Muse will seek a way to bring it to life, to let others in and openly declare that they alone have the right to say that the place will Choose My Company, and not a person to whom will have their own agenda.
It is the company of Beth Malcolm that the Muse has chosen to be the guide, her time in Glasgow a shining example of how to dedicate art to a location and making it resonate, no matter where it is heard; and in her second E.P. release, Choose My Company, the feeling of treading down on the streets of the Scottish city is one that is captured with fruitful expanse and meaning.
The five strong song E.P. is one that holds true to praising the Muse, the single thought raised as you sit and watch a scene unfold, the people only actors as they set up the scene in front of you, it is the backdrop that makes all this happen, that gives the moment its meaning, and as the songs People Make Glasgow, Evergreen, Ghost Tour, Choose My Company and Lighthouse all leave their indelible mark, the situation may perhaps fade, but the setting is the one that is forever entrenched in the mind.
Beth Malcom’s songs are not only beautiful, they also remind the listener to take more care of their surroundings, that the source of inspiration is not only caught in the lure of someone’s face, but in the immediacy of the place it happened in. To Choose My Company is what we all seek, but to return the favour of expression to the location in which it all came about; that is the Muse restored to its rightful heart of any story.
Ian D. Hall