Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
We can only hope that any artist goes into their studio and thinks of the lasting effect of their art rather than the popularity, however fleeting, it can bring; that the songs, the plays, the stories written of aged memories and mischief set down, are Forever Songs and not just in the realms of the moment.
Acclaimed folk artist Shane Alexander’s latest full-length foray into the world of captivating treasures and uniquely consummate, his eighth in total, sees his own Forever Songs ascend to a height of mounting joy and take greater care of the undercurrent of melancholic desire that weaves its way through the album, and places an intelligent design of balance on full view for the listener to grasp the importance of the musician’s deeper thoughts as he performs, as he contemplates life and the muse in harmony during one of the most agonising periods of time in collective memory.
With a line up of musicians that capture the essence of the bounty of lyrical value within, including Jesse Siebenberg, no stranger himself to the complexities of arrangement and the dynamic required to bring art into sharp focus, songs such as the outstanding openers of You Make Your Own Luck and Autumn Blue, the hauntingly beautiful Ballad of the Troubadour, the adorable A Heart Like Mine, and Higher Than High, are given their deserved time in the listener’s mind as they muse on the meanings revealed.
It is to the revelations of others as they fought against themselves in the midst of a crucial era of unimagined assault on the senses, on the fears that people held, and for some perhaps the evil of manipulation and the ease in which they could turn the event to their advantage, that play with the need to overcome any residue of fear, and how better than by confrontation, of placing dread before the muse and seeing it turn to the majesty of art.
The ability to bring the introspective out of its shell and place it with care under the harsh glow of realism is to be admired and applauded, and Shane Alexander does this with the quality of truthful humility. An album of polished reckoning, and energy of unmatched dedication; truly captivating.
Shane Alexander releases Forever Songs on April 4th.
Ian D. Hall