Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

You do not have to wear a uniform to salute a Captain, nor should it be one that is given under duress, of the fear of reprisal, but one intended of respect, of that sense of absolute admiration for the position they hold in public, and in private, of the high opinion offered to another human being for the work they have produced and of consistent high quality they persistently endeavour to offer.

Respect where respect is due, from the path of enlightenment and through the fields that surround the Lavender Way, whichever path you take, it must be one that has the scent of progress, of continuance, and of pulse driving effort attached to it. It is to respect that the new song from Liverpool’s Shadow Captain, Lavender Way is faced, not of confrontation, but of the detail to the past in which the song is structured, a mark of reverence itself to which the playful melody leaves a lasting smile on the face and which is a powerful reminder of songs that are the foundation stones of all that came before.

There are those who will always suggest that we must look forward, but never they admit, to progressing, for in the artist’s soul must be the twin beliefs, of something new, but also the respect of what has gone before; after all you cannot have a revolution built on sand, it must acknowledge the rocks and fundamentals of what was beautiful before.

Shadow Captain, also known as the superb musician and troubadour Stuart Todd, recognises this, in what can be heard in the new single is his own admiration of 60s pop, especially of those bands and musicians that were moving away from the rigid stance of the previous decade, and willing to experiment with a fuller, more natural sound, one that also saw its own revolution coming, one that we, as listeners, often salute but rarely now investigate further.

Lavender Way, a place in which the journey is as exhilarating as the scenery, a song to which does Liverpool’s Shadow Captain absolute credit.

Ian D. Hall