Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
At least once in a person’s life, the wish to hit the Re-Set button is one they cannot ignore. They may plod on for a time in the usual manner, appearing to the world with a smile and a look of contentment, but the human spirit that dwells within will only burn for so long before it requires re-adjusting to the understanding that it needs to start again, not completely, but at the point where in the heart they may feel they wandered off the path of promise and hope and into the wilderness of appeasement and allowing others to misuse their good intentions.
To Re-Set does not mean abandon all that you earned or gave in the pursuit of a dream, it just follows that at some point in your life you re-evaluate what thrills you, what you desire, and more importantly, what you wish to give back to society, how you wish to be recognised as the years move ever onward.
The longevity of the artist is the point of the Re-Set, without focusing every once in a while, on what they have so far delivered to the crowd, they cannot move forward, and it takes a special breed in which to flirt with the button of renewal whilst still holding the dignity of the profession firmly within loving and sincere hands.
Shakin’ Stevens is a steadying influence on whom music has always been the reason for all he has achieved. There are few to whom can hold their own in his company as one of the best-selling artists across the decades since he first appeared with The Sunsets, and yet unlike others he has managed to achieve so much without seeing his name re-set by controversy or by altering his gift for bringing power to an audience’s soul.
In his latest album that sense of beauty resides with as much pride as it ever did, the songs he brings to the attention of the listener are full, frank, fearsome, and always formidable enough to break hearts and restore confidence to those who truly deserve a moment in the sun.
Across tracks such as Not In Real Life, All You Need Is Greed, Beyond The Illusion, Hard Learned Lesson, George, and the album title song, Re-Set, Shakin’ Stevens portrays the impressive stance of his world view with the combination of taking to task the infamy of our times; it is simple, undaunted, and professionally scintillating.
Whilst being one of the continual biggest selling artists of our times, the lack of acknowledgement of the man’s worth in various quarters is shocking, and yet as Re-Set proves, it is the genuine nature of the entertainer, of the artist, and the writer, that means he remains one of the few to have at his side the weapon of change without the drama of having ever musically been taken for granted. A beautifully intelligent album, Shakin’ Stevens once more gives the listener time to feel renewed.
Ian D. Hall