Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If you’re going to get stuck in the middle with someone then you should always demand that it is someone who fill your mind with ideas so complex that it makes you a better person; but too often we fall for the empty musings of Fools & Clowns…the near unhinged chants of the deranged and the hopeless that somehow, like sirens, catch us in their nets and cause us to sit long legged and loose limbed on sides that we know we normally would avoid.

To be in the company of greats and advisors is to understand that the fools can only attempt to subvert the natural, and the shenanigans of clowns are to be ignored at all costs.

Thankfully the listener is astute being, and in performers such as Mark Harrison, the cool calm waters that have been harnessed to create harbours for thinkers and philosophers has been extended, offering salvation and salutation to those who seek a home with confidence; and as the new album by the musician and his band takes hold, so we feel the Fools & Clowns as a sense of the dramatic, as an opportunity to spread our own ideas and regale in the glory of expression.

In tracks such as the album’s opening track House Rent Party, and the subsequent teachers of wise opulence of Them And Us, the excellent The Great Stink, The Rocket, Road Ahead Closed, and the finales of Sonny Boys and Ricky, Mark Harrison eulogises on humanity’s frailty, its sense of purpose, the damage wrought to our psyche as we push ourselves to the fringes rather than seeking that safe harbour, the place where the waves of misfortune are sated and settled.

An absolute terrific sounding album, a guide to a place where what we appreciate as the small details are given greater depth and persistence of observation; Mark Harrison is detail in obligation, assurance in summary, and the duty officer of examination into the human condition, and forever will be the master of the harbour of words and sentiments that we cling to in stormy waters.

Ian D. Hall