Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
At the appointed hour, and not a second before, do we venture into new territory and realise that we should have been there from the very start.
Is it time or tide that holds us back from taking that chance, from offering our soul before the clock strikes the midnight of our lives and believing that we are forever surrounded by the bright shadows of a late morning walk in the settlement of obscurity and the darkness of doubt that cast its welcome hand to us; whichever element we seek, is the one we perhaps unwittingly veer to and escaping the grip of possible acceptance by others for what we can do their heart and mind.
We stop at the observatory and check the watch pointing to the Greenwich Mean Times, the characters and their tales, the sense of melancholy and passionate hard work that surrounds the air is one that comes from the mind of Bibby, and the sense of history that entails the area, is only matched by the sincerity to the songs that make up the artist’s cracking album.
If the artist finds they come to the fore only when Time allows, then the listener in a period of existence where there is more to influenced by than ever before, must feel out of synch at times, must feel the swell of the tide that consumes their own moments in the sun. However, there is always time to find new inspiration and beauty, and in Bibby’s Greenwich Mean Times, the sentiment of solitude and unburdening of tightly wound and repressed feelings, of releasing the depth in which our own portents of silence are often withered and starved, come out in a glorious fashion and are desirable, as well as insightful.
Across tracks such as The End of the Road, the excellent May The Good Lord Rode All the Way, Back To Haunt Me, Superstitions, and the album’s title track of Greenwich Mean Times, Bibby eloquently brings tales to the listener’s ears that they can only wish they had been on the journey with the artist, but will always settle for hearing about the adventures and the people they have met along the way.
New territory explored but with the advantage of following a map that has shown others the way, all with added notes of pleasure neatly inscribed and green markers which add the sense of personal to the journey; melancholic, confident, poised and tough, the music may be softly spoken, but Greenwich Mean Times has a huge strong and fiery heart pushing it onwards.
Ian D. Hall