Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
You either have rhythm, or you embrace the emotional creativity to be found in others as they unburden the tempo that resides in the heartbeat and the reflex of their soul. Rhythm is the pulse that satisfies when all else stagnates, when all becomes dust and dull routine and it invariably leads one to Believe in magic, in soul, and in the remarkable to whom nothing it seems is beyond creating.
Magic though is nothing without timing, and for Albert Cummings, timing is such that his latest encounter with the rhythmic pulse of the universe, Believe, is one created not by a wand but by muscle, memory and rigorously attending to the job at hand; sheer hard work rewarded with its own personal freedom, that is the true effect of belief.
The richness and depth of experience of Albert Cummings is not to be ignored, in fact the demand on the ear is serious, intense and crafted with such beauty that even the whisper from a fallen siren cannot hope to compete, and across such pieces of music as Do What Mama Says, My Babe, Going My Way and the absolute precision of the final track, Me and My Guitar, the album, which was recorded at the iconic FAME studios and with the help and attention of award-winning producer Jim Gaines, offers a way into the mind of the artist without taking liberties from the listener.
Believe is a set of songs that are true, not just to be accepted blindly as a pact with confidence would have you trust in the ephemeral, but to be sought after as praising the difference in sound to which the coming together of performer, venue and producer have attained, timeless rhythm, timeless pursuit of dependable and the dynamic in one fell swoop.
If working hard, if getting down deep and dirty in the expectations of life can be rewarded, given a feeling of contentment for the time spent ploughing and making sure that all is earned fairly, then Believe is an album that gives, that furnishes the mind and the rhythm of the heart and which in the end leaves you wanting so much more.
Albert Cummings’ Believe is out now and available via Provogue/Mascot Label Group.
Ian D. Hall