Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
To feel exhilaration and exhaustion in the aftermath of an album’s completion is one of the great emotional feelings that life can throw at you; to feel not only emboldened, but vitalised as the sweat and destruction of the pre-conceived ideas of how art can influence, guide, and threaten to quicken the pulse to the point where the blood pressure starts to bust machinery, is something to build belief on.
It is the vast sense of pace, arrangement, and increased confidence that fills the senses that Tom Meighan’s stunning new album lives and breathes fire, the reflection of the soul is caught by the scenes of passion and madness, and as each moment that Roadrunner exists in the surrounding air of the listener, so the massive aura of the exercise becomes infinite, and the highway of music becomes cosmic.
An entire album of furiously reflective pleasures, from the opening barrage of Use Or Lose It, White Lies, and Silver Linings, and through the power of tracks such as High On and Exorcist, and the sublime finish that exemplified in Do Your Thing and Would You Mind sees the musician crown the glory of those accompanying him and Bnann Infadel, Ele Lucas, Chris Haddon, Brodie Maguire, and Gareth Young certainly understand that they are being bolstered by the form of the songs to a point where they too are guided by the emotional, the resonance, and the drama of the piece.
Roadrunner is mature, it is empathy of the current state of the world, each and every corner of its being is fully rounded and erudite, Tom Meighan turns on the attitude and performs with incredible passion; so much so the end result is awesome, a sense of pleasure born in a raging cosmic storm.
Tom Meighan releases Roadrunner on 13th September on Blue Rocket Records.
Ian D. Hall