Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Where you eat and drink is as important as what you consume, what you munch down upon, what tickles your fancy, or even consoles you, whilst you are at the bar, whilst you dine in company, or alone.

The Café Terrace at Night invites Nighthawks drinking coffee, tasting wine, or open air fresco declaring the savagery of a culture best left in the dark surrounding the patrons and drunks of Gin Lane, these are the habits of the evening songbirds as they imbibe, tell tall tales to awaiting ears, and leave the morning to those who wish to talk with passion of change as they witness Sunshine at the Café Ridard come pouring through the clear windows.

The insight and perception behind the incredible An Upside Down Tree comes to the fore in the scintillating album Sunshine at the Café Ridard, an exercise in exorcism of the toxicity we have all endured in the past couple of years, for this is more than an album of what others see as their job to cut and paste together in the hope that the narrative is at least comprehensible, this is so tightly sewn that there is not a gap in the fabric to found, no small hole in which a needle of regret can be found, but a three course dining experience for the soul and for the ears.

There is a purity to be found within, a diet created which leaves the listener sated, but also curious of what is being served on other tables, an ability to tempt, but also contain, and it is to that end that tracks such as Travelling Alone In A World Full Of People, Skipping Rope, The Perfect Plan, Kiss That Warm Smile, and the genius melancholy of Something Happened And Our World Disappeared attain the attention of the listener before the first metaphorical bite.

With Annabella Maneljuk and Erik Moore continuing their partnership with aplomb, and with contributions from Mark Hill, George Harris, and Charlie Moore, Sunshine at the Café Ridard is a compelling visit, an afternoon reclining in excellent company. Never mind the night and the hawks who prey in the darkness, in the brightness of passionate and life affirming rays is where the crowd should be at.

Ian D. Hall