Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It’s all done with Smoke and Mirrors.
The sceptic would have you believe that nothing in this world is as it seems, that we are being deceived, our own belief is under attack from the fallibility of expression, the shortcomings of our naivety, and yet it is those very same sceptics who denounce the positives and embrace a negativity unworthy of human existence that will have you believe that only their word is true, that they beyond all others must be heard and lauded as if they were kings of a realm we could not hope to envisage.
Smoke and Mirrors, the games we play when we set out to deceive and flatter with no intention of truth passing the lips, but we should ignore such folly, such lies, from the mouths of damaged people, and instead double down on the truth delivered by the artists, the seekers of expression, the ones with nothing to lose; for their integrity remains intact even in the funfair and the hall of mirrors.
Keith Thompson’s latest album, Smoke and Mirrors is one of genuine peace, a calling to the world that his word is sincere, of huge sound, of soft cajoling, of insight and observation, and one that understands that it does not matter if you have flaws, as long as you show them to the world and that they are not a weakness, just scars in which you have grown alongside.
The fragility and punishment of life is such that we are afraid to show those scars in fear that we will be judged on the appearance of them, that the smoke will cause pain in people’s eyes and those mirrors will be echoes of distorted visions, in short our true soul will be nothing short of a lie; and it with that beautiful fragility in mind that tracks such as the opener Easy Money, Anybody’s Guess, Falling, Softer Frame Of Mind, and What I Know Now, all combine to give a true representation of a musician so steeped in the flourish of legitimate precision that the smoke reveals itself to be a smouldering love, and the mirrors are ones that reflect an exactness of the mind inside.
An album that encourages belief, that stands up in the face of deception tossed around by those with lesser conviction, Smoke and Mirrors is Keith Thompson’s epic made clear.
Ian D. Hall