Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The complexity of Christmas is such that it can cause inner conflict and turmoil to those who see the endless commercialism as an assault on their ability to not be downed in the saccharine and the overblown. To many the best part of the year is reserved not for the hype, but the beauty of the human experience of simple pleasures.
The most beautiful surely is that of the human voice and if we were not tormented by government and advertisers that insisted we do our financial upmost for the grotesque slug like entity known as the economy, we might actually find that instead of waste and talentless opulence, we would find ourselves in the company of a truth of the time of year that is more positive, less stressful, beyond glorious, and in many way that sense of ample splendour comes in the voice and inspiring occasion of Kate Rusby.
If we could find a way to see just enormously satisfying it is to be in the presence of such obvious joy without being urged to buy into the pointless and the plastic, then we could be Light Years from the sense of epidemic of poverty we witness not just at this time of year, but in the everyday. It takes great courage to stand out and sing with the heart of an angel, and that is exactly what Ms. Rusby completes with purpose and pride.
Light Years is an album of passionate contribution to the other side of the Christmas period, that in which our souls are nourished more than that to which our greed is expected to thrive, and as standards, a sizeable couple of covers, and the sense of the divine that comes with open arms to the world, so Kate Rusby once more proves that we don’t need to see winter as a grand gesture, just a period of love for all.
Across tracks such as The Moon Shines Bright, Nowell, Nowell, Arrest These Merry Gentlemen, Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree, and A Spaceman Came Travelling, Kate Rusby’s insight into how to bring joy is the most overwhelming belief that an artist can bring to the period of darkness, cold, and conditioning, and one that supersedes all in turning the doubt and night-time to a period of light and human brightness.
As ever class is permanent, and one to which Kate Rusby resides in with undemanding pleasure.
Ian D. Hall