Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We tend to think of the concept album as one that can be seminal, gargantuan in its outlook, full bodied in say the realms of Pink Floyd, Green Day, Jethro Tull, The Who, and even the magnificent aspirations of the smooth voice from R ‘n’ B and Soul’s Marvin Gaye in his undeniable classic What’s Going On, but we forget that at times the concept is more than just an anthem, a set of songs placed together to rock a stadium and declare, almost punk like, of the disaffection and destruction of a human soul in a theatrical sense, but it is also a celebration of an oral tradition; a bringing together the life of someone not in the public eye but one who is just as every bit the hero or heroine deserving a tale.

Andrew J. Newall has once again teamed up Sandy Jones of Foundry Music Lab and in his brand-new album, My Lucky Charm, the sense, the power, the commitment to the concept is not only alive and well, but it also flourishes; like a field of flowers after a perfect rainfall, it blooms with a silky finish that glistens in the rays of the returning sun.

The music and the oral history that is saluted with honour to the memory of family, the blending of songs that detail a life, a movement, a shared responsibility to the belief of continuance and the forces that bring families together, and the wars that split them apart; it is in this that Andrew J. Newall, along with excellent contributions from musicians Sophie Innes, Frances Murphy, Terry O’Neill, and Emma Mitchie, explores the depth of the dynamic that led to him, with thanks to his mother’s oral storytelling, the history of what came to be.

Across tracks and instances such as A Step Away, The Shores Of Scapa Flow, On My Feet Again, New Shoes, the sublime Skipping On The Tracks, and The White School, the imagery placed before the listener is intensely hypnotic, a play within a musical within a sphere of charm; lucky or not, it is a journey of experience, and passionately, awesomely, produced.

A terrifically balanced recording, one of truth that flows and enjoyed, a testament to the art of the concept album.

Ian D. Hall