Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
When asked to illuminate the path so that others may follow in your footsteps, it is not so that they can steal your limelight, nor is it because they are wary of treading off the path and ending in the quagmire of disillusion and disappointment, it is because they have witnessed the stride and measure of the beauty you have spread along the way, and they want to stroll past the same flowering buds, and help make them grow.
Shine A Light On Me Brother is not so much an instruction, but a dedication, the acknowledgement of performance, of the constitutional hard fought for, hard won mettle that runs through the spine of Robert Jon & The Wreck, and in which their latest album is one of appreciation, resolve, and valour in its most glorious; the light not only having been shared, but publicly and mutually distributed so that they too can have the pleasure of shining a light for others to follow.
It is never about being first, but it has everything to do with originality and how you conduct yourself in the face of those who take you and your artistic voice and integrity to their heart.
For Robert Jon & The Wreck, which includes Robert John Burrison on lead vocals and guitar, Andrew Espantman on drums, Steve Maggiora on keyboard, Henry James on lead guitar and Warren Murrell on bass, what comes across is the sheer depth of enjoyment that comes through on every play of the new album, and as the illumination of the songs takes greater prominence, especially in tracks such as Everyday, Ain’t No Young Love Song, Chicago, the superb Desert Sun, Anna Marie, and the gracious and stunning finale of Radio. What the listener finds is a sense of completion in the midst of others wayward chaos, and it is a groove that keeps returning with spirit, energy, and without the fuss of those who insist on playing in what they believe is the creative dark.
To accept that you must head to the light to be heard and visualised is not a step backwards in integrity, and it is with fortitude and passion that Robert Jon & The Wreck have taken on the torch themselves and lit up the avenue behind them for others to feel the ferocious heat of inspiration and stimulus coming from the album’s deep and entertaining heart
Robert Jon & The Wreck release Shine A Light On Me Brother on September 3rd and is available to pre-order from robertjonandthewreck.com.
Ian D. Hall