Category Archives: Music

Jayne Taylor: Lonely One. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The top 40 may have lost its relevance, its stature since the turn of the century lost a generation who paused their breath as the reveal of the number one was announced, their much loved artist, their latest favourite song, would it be there, the pinnacle of the week’s current adoration; but it doesn’t stop the rise of the song, of the single, from catching our ear, conscious, and soul and taking us from the Lonely One to the one who feels love, friendship, and perhaps inclusion on a larger stage.

Jayne Taylor: Lonely One. Single Review. full post

(356 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Taz: Wake Up And Sweat, Vol 1. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

For a decade the music coming out of Los Angeles was raw, energetic, magnificent. It had grown from its encompassing roots of Californian 60s rock standards, flower power child sensibilities, its long hair ‘hippy’ roots and taken on a greater, more fierce, more competitive edge as it sought to outmarch bands emerging from its East Coast counterparts and those from Europe and Australia.

Taz: Wake Up And Sweat, Vol 1. Album Review. full post

(451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Alice Cooper: Road. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To discover where the road may lead you, you have to first admit that being lost is just the start of the journey.

To still be producing albums of such intensity after more than 50 years is remarkable, and for that alone the legend is set in concrete, protected by a court order of significant cultural appreciation, and a monument to perseverance. Every now and then a lost soul will happen across this monument, they will pull across to the hard shoulder, read the inscription, listen to the audio description, and realise they were never lost, they just needed Alice Cooper to offer them direction.

Alice Cooper: Road. Album Review. full post

(505 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

When Rivers Meet: Aces Are High. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Aces are always high, for in a world where the Kings judge they are number one, they can be beaten by those they perceive to be the lowest denominator, and that sows the seeds of overwhelming brilliance from the true aces in the pack, the ones who grow and continue to be appreciated, and not because of imposed rank, but of dedication, natural flair, and a soul that is prepared to work and graft with a truth bursting put of every seam, every pore.

When Rivers Meet: Aces Are High. Album Review. full post

(412 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Gareth Heesom: Selfies By The Sea. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The public complain of the rise of the selfie, the pose that keeps on coming in the most arguably often inappropriate places. The issue as they see it is a belief that a camera phone in the hand and the constant retakes is either a case of narcissism out of control, or struggling to see an image of themselves that they can be satisfied without bowing to the pressure of anxiety.

Gareth Heesom: Selfies By The Sea. Single Review. full post

(366 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

The Paper Kites: At The Roundhouse. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Flying a kite in a thunderstorm is a reckless occupation, only scientists and foolhardy adventurers would see the lightning and relish the challenge…and yet to see the spark of brilliance as the flash explodes, as the possibility of fire framed by the reflection in the eye, that is the moment where holding The Paper Kites might just be the most thrilling occasion a person can behold.

The Paper Kites: At The Roundhouse. Album Review. full post

(460 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Nunnery Norheim: I Saw The City. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

A true observer of the human condition and one who sees the meaning behind every building, who feels every ounce of historical sweat that was produced as cracks and fissures were framed and restored, and who understands that the town, every village, and that of the great and expanding metropolitan, is as much of the fabric of society as the person who lives and breathes within their tempered walls….these are the people who recognise the point in documenting it all to words and memory.

Nunnery Norheim: I Saw The City. Album Review. full post

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Mike Ryan: All We Have Is Now. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

All We Have Is Now…and that is the truth of it; for we can plan for the future as much as we are able, we can look ahead with degree of certainty that our plans will be realised, but the moment comes and goes with frightening regularity, and we are in the end undeniably slaves to the prospect of the tick and the tock of a potential lost.

If we grasp the moment with a force of momentum that leaves scars on the hand, then that now is forever framed and laid down in ways that leave a searing heat of pleasure across the conscious of the artist within.

Mike Ryan: All We Have Is Now. Album Review. full post

(367 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Gareth Williams: Songs From The Last Page. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Art inspires art.

History is replete with the historical and the past endeavours of an artist enthusing the soul of the student, of the long distant sculpture illustrating to the modern cartoonist just how to capture form and feeling, of the novel displaced in time being captured like lighting in between a leather cover performing miracles in the world of music long after the authors have passed their way into the next realm.

Gareth Williams: Songs From The Last Page. Album Review. full post

(372 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Paul Hardcastle: Nineteen And Beyond: 1984-1988. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The strangeness of being a name on the lips of everyone to one who can pass relatively unnoticed through a large crowd is one that is an underrated and startling. It is a reassurance that we can all have a moment in the national limelight that is filled with compliment and congratulations, and then be comfortable in our niche that we thrive, without being exposed to overwhelming idolatry.

Paul Hardcastle: Nineteen And Beyond: 1984-1988. Box Set Review. full post

(566 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)