Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Intensity is a crown that doesn’t fit snugly upon the head it is made for, some will wilt of transferring their stage presence to the studio and visa-versa, never the twain joining, connecting in a fruitful manner, the performance or the live experience somehow misfiring in the arms of the other partner. However, when it comes to certain places on the planet, certain areas that exude an energy that defies the logic of a system entrenched in a belief of all’s fair in love and tour, that sense of intensity can easily be seen to be influenced by the passion of those that went before.
When The World Stops Turning, you buckle up and head on to the next pitstop, the hotel of your dreams or the Nightbird Motel, all is equal when the Muse is offering to pay for the bed and breakfast, and when that Motel is in the same area that influenced the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Lenny Welch, Southside Johnny, then it is not just a case a hunkering down for the night, making sure you have some ice to hand and that the door is firmly bolted and locked, it is an open invitation to dress like a king, behave like a genius and wear the crown of intense feelings with genuine passion and pride; for in the right place, surrounded by the memories of other’s commitment to the art, you are sure to be guided to the best motel of them all.
For Connor Bracken And The Mother Leeds Band, the Nightbird Motel is not just another stop on a long journey, a place where laurels have been allowed to be rested on questionable pillows, it is an album of earnest fellowship, of insistence and instant demand, and for Connor Bracken, Rich Seyffart, Jeff Linden and Chris Dubrow, the songs are paramount, they capture and illuminate what it means to be inspired by your surroundings; lock a person away in a cage and they became a shadow of the bars imprisoning them, allow the motel to overlook a scene of beauty, of challenge and epic nature, and they will exhibit belief in what it means to be free.
It is in freedom that songs such as the album’s opener, When The World Stops Turning, the excellent Photographs of Johnny Cash, Liquorstore, the captivating scenes painted in Voice on The Road, Dream of You and Me and Nightbird that the listener cannot help but being asked to join the Muse in appreciating just how insightful the band are, and how the scene is set by the area of musical domination they have stepped into feels.
The end result is one of dynamic, creative passion, more than a one-night affair, this is the place in which to settle down and plan a future with; after all good things start at the Nightbird Motel.
Connor Bracken And The Mother Leeds Band release Nightbird Motel on September 25th.
Ian D. Hall