Category Archives: Music

Steve Hackett: Guitar Noir. 2023 Reissue. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Largely acknowledged as the quiet man of Genesis, without whom some of the most extraordinary of musical shapes and conquests would never have seen the band survive the initial days and albums when Peter Gabriel left, and which arguably propelled them onwards, and saw his own solo output take on a more adventurous and prolific dynamic which has seen him continually push the imagination and the themes of his music to places where assuredly they might never have been seen had he not, like his former bandmate, been bold and courageous and sought his own path to tread.

Steve Hackett: Guitar Noir. 2023 Reissue. Album Review. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Elijah James And The Nightmares: The Hellish Bending Towards The Light. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

What we might perceive as Hell is only that which soon reveals itself to be salvation, the gateway to a higher plane of existence, a moment in which the light is noticed as a giver and not as first thought, a deceiver, an instrument of denial.

Elijah James And The Nightmares: The Hellish Bending Towards The Light. Album Review. full post

(435 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Roger Waters: The Lockdown Sessions. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Should we leave the insane nonsense behind when we speak of a Roger Waters release, or should we confront it head on and put the record straight?

It is impossible to think that there are those who will seek out the name and attach thought, though it be free, which quite absurdly suggests the very opposite of what Mr. Water’s music, his lyrics and the stage shows he has performed within since his days as part of a fledgling underground phenomenon known as Pink Floyd, has espoused, and countered and yet not see the irony in it.

Roger Waters: The Lockdown Sessions. Album Review. full post

(463 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Foo Fighters: But Here We Are. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A place and a time that must come to us all, how we confront it, how we deal with the emotion, how we move on as they have faded, it is up to us. Some rage in the dying of the light, some accept that the world needs to change, and a few, a daring and persuasive few, will play with melancholy and reason, they will charm and conspire with the memory and produce, not tears, but a flood of recalls, reminisces, and recollections that collide fiercely and with beauty installed into every drop of feeling within what will become art.

Foo Fighters: But Here We Are. Album Review. full post

(485 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Parker Ferrell: Love Runs Through. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

A universal truth must come when we learn to observe more than just our own footsteps, more than just our lives in the moment if we are to grow and progress as a species.

That truth, one of many and never singular is alive to the certainty that we are connected, that we must observe others on the same road, those that travel with us in our time, those that go against the flow, those that stand still or those that trudge or stride with purpose in ways that we thought was unobtainable and unimaginable…for whichever way the road points we can but hope that Love Runs Through the course of the observer’s mind, that it connects with all around it; and by doing so creates energy and art as a symbol of what has been witnessed. 

Parker Ferrell: Love Runs Through. Album Review. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Dannii Minogue: Neon Lights. 20th Anniversary Reissue. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is with celebration that the chance to revel in a re-release of a fan favourite and a classic of its genre should come for those who took instantly to the presence of another Minogue sister in the pop charts.

Dannii Minogue: Neon Lights. 20th Anniversary Reissue. Album Review. full post

(426 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Beverley Craven: Memories (The Complete Epic Recordings 1990-1999). Album Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We thankfully live in age where we can place our thoughts of a creative’s art with informed insight as they delve into their back catalogue and remind, through combined packaging and box sets, of their journey, their exploration of their individuality and dreams, their sound as they honed expression and voice in such a way that does not immediately become clear when listening, in music’s sense, to a single album and then another perhaps a few weeks later.

Beverley Craven: Memories (The Complete Epic Recordings 1990-1999). Album Box Set Review. full post

(486 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Steely Dan: Countdown To Ecstasy. Album Review. (2023 Reissue).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To look back at an album, at any piece of art, and declare it to be prophetic, is to ascribe meaning to a moment uttered and echoed though out time by our own perceived belief of how the world has turned out.

Yet, with that said, future insight is a skill of mindful endurance, of being able to assign certain scenarios to current news item and allowing the imagination to flow unabated by personal feeling to produce what could be the eventuality, the final piece of the puzzle and presenting in such a way that it has the voyeur of the art being committed to open suggestion that it was always meant to be.

Steely Dan: Countdown To Ecstasy. Album Review. (2023 Reissue). full post

(494 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Gentle Giant: Interview. Album Re-release Review. (2023).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Progressive Rock is a spirited animal that deserves its freedom, but the art of the concept is such that it requires gentle nurturing by band and listener alike.

In the last decade more seminal bands from the golden period of the genre have found a way to have their voice reheard; early Jethro Tull have benefitted greatly from such a move, King Crimson, Yes, Gentle Giant, Rush, and even Marillion have been given the treatment of renewal, and it is perhaps down to the prodigious work by one of the modern greats of the genre, Steven Wilson, that the music of a time when all could be Kings, is being once again revered and lauded for the intensity and thought it once held aloft.

Gentle Giant: Interview. Album Re-release Review. (2023). full post

(480 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)