Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Self-care maybe a modern train of thought, but it is one that is vitality important; for even at a basic level, if you can’t love yourself, then how can you love another.
We are caught in a dichotomy, a gulf of contradiction. There will be those that insist on informing you that you are being selfish for even thinking of yourself before others, even when you are at the point of exhaustion, of falling down, they will point the finger and swear to Heaven and Earth are self-serving and egotistical.
Then there are others who talk the good fight, that to take time for yourself in any shape or form is to allow yourself recovery, to heal, and when all is said and done, to Remember To Buy Yourself Flowers is not just an act of self-centred attraction, but a necessary altruistic act in which the soul will be thankful for.
Recorded live at Theatre Twm o’r Nantin Denbeigh, Skeet Williams and Deborah Jackson’s Remember To Buy Yourself Flowers is the debut single from their forthcoming live album release due out in May; and it is one of heartfelt emotion, of seeds sown that flourish in times when winds are not only fierce, but threaten to scatter good intentions by all to the mercy and the hunger of scavenging crows and blackbirds.
The twin proposal of fortune between Mr. Williams and Ms. Jackson is further pushed by the intriguing work of the genius insight of Liverpool poet Ged Thompson. That flourish of words is dramatic, as one would expect from one of the city’s favourite writers, and by incorporating it into the music, the triumvirate of passions not only settles on roses in bloom, but adds distinction the array of flowers we need in which to feel at one with nature’s giddy release.
The working arrangement between Ged Thompson and Skeet Williams is such that whilst this is not their first time unifying in a musical accord, it is one that captures the ears of even the uninitiated, let alone the hard fast fan, and it is such a pleasure to be placed within earshot of this sublime single.
Remember To Buy Yourself Flowers, remember that a rose has many meanings in its colour, but they all define the point of regard for one’s own soul; and like the music on offer in this beautiful song, it is one that lasts for as long as you nurture and care for it.
Ian D. Hall