Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
In the emotional turmoil that comes with attempting to express one’s beliefs, hopes and thoughts, we often accuse of others of not making sense, we deride them for their stuttering shadows of speech, as if that is the point of existence, to play a game of battering egos in which assumption of somebody’s worth is decided by how well you decide they have got their opinion across.
The context of such stern rebuke is why we have a generation of thinkers who have been brow beaten by those with the loudest voices, not with the best line of reasoning or discourse; however there is always hope that someone will take up the cause of rectifying the current situation, and no matter what will argue that we look to those who ask if they look beyond the speeches, and instead study the writing on the wall.
In the self-penned debut, we always find the stirrings of reaching out, of finding that particular artist’s queries and questions, and for Scottish singer-song writer Amy Papiransky her own choice of embracing the inquisitive is steeped in the hypnotic tones of the enthralling Read Me Write.
Patience is a virtue, the ability to take your time as you endeavour to pick at the strands which might lead to the world revealing itself in a more enlightened phase, add this state of mind to the feeling of contentment in your long held pursuit and what you are left with is a confidence in your own expression, one that others will do their best to dislodge, but which can be nothing other than spectacular.
Across songs such as Quiet To You, Flutterbye, Doubts, Jen-nifer, A Robin’s Song and Oh Mother, the act of putting the words down and paper, of true reflection, is placed in evidence before the jury, and it is one that cannot be dismissed; that the listener finds the words as conclusive as the music that surrounds them.
Read Me Write is the product of having something to say and having the self-assurance to make it stand-out, but it requires the rest of us to see the words forming in the mouths of the thoughtful, not just to listen to the ones who shout the loudest and who find the best way to converse is by verbal graffiti.
A set of beautiful songs which gladden the heart, Amy Papiransky is a treasure waiting to be heard.
Amy Papiransky releases Read Me Write on Sunday 1st September.
Ian D. Hall