Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

If you are fortunate enough in life, occasionally you might come across a piece of art that sends delightful and meaningful chills down your spine, the sensation that you are in the presence of a moment that will haunt you, that will leave you scarred, drained of reason, that will push your emotions to the brink of letting go, and then with passion, with sheer will, pull you back, will gladden your soul, and make you understand the intensity, the affection that has swelled the belief that For All Our Days That Tear Our Heart we are left with having lived as all humans should, with truth never have been withheld from us.

It is a symbol of truth, honour, and love that the collaboration between one of the decades most influential actors and performers, and one of the leading lights and exponents of British guitar, that Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler’s creative talents have merged so intently, purposely and with such dramatic, sweeping effect that For All Our Days That Tear Our Heart is an album of mercy, heartbreak, tension, an album that digs deep into the veins of responsibility and doesn’t care about the dictates of fashion. This is hardcore regard, of empathy, and it is exquisite.

For every measure of intricate guitar, Jessie Buckley wrings and drains the emotion out her voice as if she is witnessing the alpha and the omega in the same breath being conceived and departing; tracks such as the album opener The Eagle & The Dove, Babylon Days, We Haven’t Spoke About The Weather, Beautiful Regret, I Cried Your Tears, and Shallow The Water all convey such desire, a springtide moon being celebrated for the gifts and bounty it reveals, that the listener not only falls in love, but gains insight to the human condition.

For be it the art of melancholia, in the abrasion of searing impression, of a song captured by a voice that is the true meaning of beauty, For All Our Days That Tear Our Heart is absolute quality, an intention of the one muscle that controls more than our heart could hope to achieve, and for that Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler deserve our thanks, our own level of contribution to what is an album that haunts majestically every nerve and fibre within our spirit.

Ian D. Hall