Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

An anthem for the lonely, at any other time in history it would have sounded as if the narrative had come of the pages of one of the great American novels, the protagonist of the piece finding their way through the wilderness to great acclaim, and which stood for an allegory of the way the nation had come through its own trials and tribulations. Yet like so many unique experiences during a time that we dared to believe would never be, it is a fitting reminder of the sheer agony and pain, the dashed hope, and the seizing of beauty in even a drop of rain, that is exemplified by Henry Bateman in his new single, Seinfeld Street.

We have all had our own ways of dealing with the fallout of 2020, in many ways we have excelled in our perseverance, our fortitude and resolve to dig in and deal with the issue at hand, but could we have done more, could we have reached out, helped ease the pain of others, could we have written more, listened beyond our own sense of self, and instead of seeing the affair as internment, a prison for the kind, we could have created a finer, more compassionate afterwards than we seem to be heading for.

The lead single from the forthcoming album, A Ghost Inside, Seinfeld Street, burrows its way into the heart of the matter, the reflection of the artist’s own isolation and the drive that comes from within to create a lasting comment on the situation, one that does not require the whisper of regret and continued fear, but instead like Pandora’s Box, sees Hope survive, witnesses the emotion of the experiment of living within your own soul bare otherwise fruit from the strangest of trees.

Rather than being in a place of melancholia, the air surrounding the song is surprisingly, passionately, upbeat. The essence of the song is bound by the deliberate pacing, the pleasure of the urgency in delivery is one of willingness to overcome, shaking of the irons of defeat and knowing that one day, someday, the sun will shine through the clouds once more.

A song of desire for change, perhaps not in society itself immediately but initially in our own mindset, Seinfeld Street is the collective sound of our own determination to see this through, and then, demand in unison absolute revolution and transformation in how we move forward as one.

Henry Bateman releases the album A Ghost Inside later this year.

Ian D. Hall