Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The complexity of the artistic duo is one that arguably is the hardest to keep alive, the rewards are phenomenal, but the possibility of other factors straining at the leash are also enough to act as a conduit to separation, to the issues of conflict that the single performer or the group dynamic overcomes with solitude or full on conflict; but then as with so many other duos that have graced the screens or the airwaves, whatever Makes You Stronger is enough to see you become masters of your own domain.
Ron Sayer Jr and Charlotte Joyce are a bold embodiment of that statement, a company of their own that have struck out and placed trust in each other’s sizeable ability and one that has produced an album that compliments them both; no fuss, no rancour, just a realisation that belief can make you resilient and arguably more importantly, a team.
To be a team you have to lift each other in ways that others might not think of, and for Sayer & Joyce it is the very heart of what Makes You Stronger, a third album, full of diversity, but also one that embraces the vocal talent of Charlotte Joyce more than ever, a soaring beauty that rides the dynamic of Ron Sayer’s guitar with haste, poise and hard-wearing attraction.
Through songs such as Hard Love, the observant and brutal We’d Both Be Wrong, The Things We Used To Do, Too Much, Too Soon and Needful Things, Sayer & Joyce explore meaning, perhaps unintentional love and equality,and with contributions from Paul Wooden, Dave Land, Clive Hitchcock, and the backing vocals of Liz Wolfe, Paul Rowe and Jamie Rowe, Makes You Stronger is an album which reflects the toughness of surrounding yourself with those who truly want you to prosper and thrive, to achieve what you may have thought at one time was impossible, triumph in your skin.
An album of determination, of persuading the mind that the difficult part of accomplishment is to reaching places you decided at one time you could not go, and instead being human enough to reach out and touch strength; superb!
Ian D. Hall