Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
If you wish to talk about events think of them in terms of centuries, if you believe in examining or showing the spirit of humanity it is best to show them in terms of a decade.
Humanity and Time are closely linked and yet to many, history is either a subject shrouded in a dense mist, or it is a free spirit that cannot be contained, and the deeper we look into it, the more obscure the meanings can become. We are more than just an animal living by the celestial clock, a decade to us is significant, it is a passage of moments that are bound by the importance of how we spend it; as Pink Floyd once sang, “One day you find – ten years have got behind you”, and it is that decade in which we find the pinnacle of our expression and release it to the world.
For Alan O’ Hare, his involvement with music obviously goes back further than a decade, but it is to those last ten years as one of the voices of the 21st Century Liverpool greats, Only Child, that he is full focused upon, and what better way to mark the time than with the edifying and illuminating single, Bruce.
Ahead of the ensemble’s first ever long-playing record, Looking Forward To Looking Back – A Decade Of Only Child, the humanity, the living, breathing intoxication of reaching out for someone to hold your soul with kindness and joy is gifted to the listener in the form of this brand new song.
Who do you turn to, we all have our heroes and figures of empath, no one wants to be truly alone in the dark, so the voice we gravitate towards in our moments of concern is that of a higher calling, and Bruce is no different, Bruce is the voice, is the name that forms out of the dark night and in this case creates light in which only Alan O’ Hare and Only Child can present.
Ten years, a decade, and yet the sheer craft and beauty that has been offered to the public in that time has only gathered strength, and when that starts from a place of generous belief and fierce conviction, the step to Bruce is one that was always guaranteed, always one of faith in the music and the musicianship.
A fantastic single ahead of what will be a tremendous modern retrospective of work, for Only Child this is the huge company they keep, one of absolute inclusion.
Ian D. Hall