Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Scoundrels, Dreamers & Second Sons, the type of crowd we all find waiting for us in the back lit bars and the luminescence of shadows, they require payment, a settlement of funds with added interest accrued daily, only these Remittance Men are not in it to put the chains on the debtors, but they are pushing the audience to expand their appreciation of what truly flows, not pounds, shillings and pence, but art, expression, joy, acceptance, the allowance of Time to find the point of existence.
It is in the remit of The Remittance Men, Andy Santospago and Tom Robertson, along with locally sourced heroes such as Chris Anzalone, Kris Delmhirst, Mark Erelli, Zachariah Jickman, Eilen Jewell, Joe Kessler, Danielle Miraglia, James Rohr, and Dave Westner, that the sense of paying it forward is underlined, is transmitted across the divide of electrical communication; and what appears, what manifests in the shadows is that dynamic of illumination, bright, shining, captivating presence.
Make no mistake, Scoundrels, Dreamers & Second Sons is an album of class, of intricate beauty, not dispatched to the corners of the globe in hope, but seeking like minded individuals who will grasp, admire, and love the arrangement between soul and mind, the connection between payment and transfer and as tracks such as Hacienda Santa Rosa, A Room In Birmingham, 1919, Sweet Thunder, Avery Page, Lonely & Silent, and the album opener 1973 (Life On The High Seas), The Remittance Men accept the royalty of the fandom, of their craft, and call out to others to join in the revelry, of the passion of settlement of observation and great music.
Scoundrels, Dreamers & Second Sons those characters to which we play to the crowd, the visionaries who make it real, those who allocate a portion of their life to give you beauty and truth in yours, this is idea of remittance, of paying advantage forward, of paying a debt that is not yours to bare in the hope that it will bring the freedom to be as kind to those beyond as others have been to you. It is in this album by Remittance Men that art replaces the thief of time, that of monetary idolatry, and it is a splendid musical understanding that catches the ear and the soul.
Ian D. Hall