Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When a voice goes, we perhaps dismiss the person to whom it belongs. We might not purposely ignore the human being to whom the words have failed, but we certainly find a way to cast their whole being into a kind of purgatory, a lost and found for the once held in virtue.

Such an action says more about us as a society than it will ever do about the individual; we are not only quick to judge, but we are complicit in keeping the person, the artist, the voice lacking strength but not integrity, quiet.

Such an action is deplorable, and yet we still defer to those with the ability to shout to talk over us as if we were insignificant, as if we are a number, not number one for anyone, but pushed down, relegated, muted, silenced.

For Sam Brown, that silencing has arguably been one tinged with anger, a loss of range due to illness, perhaps even mirroring the way that women around the world and throughout time have found themselves supressed and stifled as they approach a certain age, or even in the modern age where they are actively encouraged to give reason and belief to their truth, still smothered by the naked aggression of those who have pitted woman against feminist.

For one so bold, who created her own vocal tale, who sang backing vocals for the likes of Pink Floyd and Fish, who is the daughter of a legend and who is in her own time a star in her own right, to finally be able to showcase a set of new songs whilst being unable to fully embrace what was once glorious and spine tingling, must be a double edged sword to carry.

However, carry it she does, and in Number 8, the long awaited follow up to 2007s Of The Moment, Sam Brown utilises technology to bring forth a collection of songs that alter the way a listener may feel about the way singers, artists of every flavour are casually discarded when their main weapon of choice is denied them. The cruelty of Sam Brown’s predicament, as one who espoused the Blue Eyed Soul sound in her solo career, is fought back against, and whilst there will be some who will undoubtedly suggest that such a way of making music is not one from the heart or the soul, it is nevertheless one that carries with it truth, a legitimacy of the intimate.

For what the technology allows as songs such as Doll, Another Day, the aptly named Marionette, Showgirl, and Not For Anyone fill the air, is for the continuation of the story. We wouldn’t decry a builder to level a wall just because they are using a robotic hand, we would dare not suggest a paramedic could not save lives because they use a pacemaker, so why should we be concerned for an artist to use any tool which allows them to speak their truth and give back beauty to the world.

It may not be the Sam Brown voice that so many desperately fell in love with, but it is Sam Brown’s proclamation of truth that they will remember, and for that the woman, the artist, the legend continues to make hearts beat. Different, challenging, but unabashed, Number 8 takes the listener beyond seventh heaven.

Ian D. Hall