Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is only at the end that we can take stock of what we have experienced and learned to understand just how at times we are prepared to be inward looking, perhaps selfish, to survive, that it comes as a shock to see how others managed themselves in times of adversity, in times when honour is called upon and often neglected.

Such a feeling is not one to be labelled at Ryk Mead, his music and honour has never been in question, and with his latest song capturing the dilemma of how we tackle the situation to which we have been placed, pushed into, with perfect timing and alacrity of spirit, In A Lockdown is quite simply a track which you cannot but help play several times in a row and still feel the urge to have one more listen.

Whilst we may be wary of any reminder to which our current position sits, we must allow ourselves to bare witness to those who see the reflection of times as a way to produce art; and if this means confronting every scenario, if this asks us to open our mind to every argument and baseline reason, then so be it, because we will not survive by dogmatically closing down our senses to the reality around us.

Ryk Mead has always used his voice to urge a response from the listener, and In A Lockdown is no different a cause to which the musician can fight his corner, and whilst the suggestion is of the present moment, underneath it is telling just how much the song is actually protesting against the psychological battle to which we are fighting with our own souls; the tyranny to which self-expression has been passionately been rebelling against the words of those who demand subservience and total reverence without offering compassion and freedom in return.

A cracking single by Ryk Mead, In A Lockdown is forthright and a plain-speaking call to arms.

Ian D. Hall