Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We care too much for the clambering voices of descent that scream in our ears of all we have done wrong, and never enough attention to the voice that may be perceived as a whisper, that could be the murmur of inquisitive appreciation, which wishes us well. Such self-doubt is magnified, personified, and objectified as an attack on all our tomorrows, all that we hope for is shaken, the happiness we seek is tainted, and all because we found a way to defeat future selves, rather than listen to the hope of Today.

That singular voice may come out of nowhere, but it is one that is a happenstance raft which comes along at the right moment to save a life, to offer refuge for a while as you tumble over waves that want to pull you under, and even if that voice leaves you at the end of its time, it will have still offered comfort, reassurance that for a while you could breathe.

Ms. Steven’s captures the feeling of a period of relief with exceptional precision in her new single, Today, whilst underscoring that the solace provided is not forever, it nevertheless offers the soul a period of understanding that a voice cares, that in a sea of troubles, fear and danger, there the occasional floating buoys that can be reached as long as you are cheered upon your way to whichever destination you may want to reach.

For that is the point, a reminder that life is a series, a succession, of voices and their songs to which you can cling to for a while whilst you take stock of your surroundings and plot the next course through uncharted, often precarious, waters. It is in this that Ms. Steven emboldens the spirit and softly, gently, offers the listener a safe sound haven in which to remember all that is good in a whisper of hope.

A song of soft deliverance but of high importance, a whisper of beauty caught in the centre of a tornado; and for Today, for tomorrow, a feeling of contentment is assured.

Ian D. Hall