Julia Fordham: Earth Mate. Album Review.

Album artwork for Earth Mate by Julia Fordham

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The relationship we have with ourselves is as important as those we have with other people, the environment we create has to cater to the soul we nurture as well as making sure it is as habitable, comforting, and welcoming as possible…we can be anybody’s friend in such circumstance, but we must also be our own companion during testing times, willing to listen to the concerns in our mind that manifest in the darkness; but above all in our concerns for the future generations to be a friend of our planet, an Earth Mate if you will.

Julia Fordham: Earth Mate. Album Review. full post

(475 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Hugh Cornwell: All The Fun Of The Fair. Album Review.

All The Fun of The Fair by Hugh Cornwell

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If we were fortunate enough as children to feel the excitement of the energy that seeks out the growing thrill as the crowds mass beneath the dazzling, shining lights, as the smell of frying onions, various meats fill the nostrils, and the screams of delight as various rides entice and lure with the acknowledgement of a friendly voice asking for their palm to be greased with coins in exchange for a five minute adventure, you can be sure that what you are remembering is the fond memory of everything associated with All The Fun Of The Fair.

Hugh Cornwell: All The Fun Of The Fair. Album Review. full post

(473 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Joker: Folie à Deux. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Zazie Beetz, Steve Coogan, Harry Lawtey, Leigh Gill, Ken Leung, Jacob Lofland, Bill Smotrovich, Sharon Washington, Alfred Rubin Thompson.

Imagine the longest middle finger to be attached to the largest, most muscled, sizeable hand, and then seeing it for all its worth as it is raised up in the face of all, a large moment in which we understand we have been probably taken for a ride; one set of the audience will see it with anguish and fury, feeling the ridicule personally…the other knowing at the end that the joke was on them and revelling in the cinema reveal in which the emotional needs and wounds have been opened and the flesh ripped apart.

Joker: Folie à Deux. Film Review. full post

(547 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Holly Channell: Not Just A Standard. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Inspiration dictates that we must take what we have learned, and with humility, go all out to either add to the image gifted us, or in some way increase its values to the point where it becomes something extraordinary, to be Not Just A Standard that should be seen inhabiting the average, the middle of anything.

Holly Channell: Not Just A Standard. Album Review. full post

(365 words, 1 image, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Stick In The Wheel: A Thousand Pokes. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When we sing in the voices of the downtrodden, when we admit to ourselves that the songs we sing are not from an exalted high praising the so-called great and good, but ones that sit in the realm of the beggar’s folk dance, the vagabond and the hobo’s Mosh, and the parody of the discotheque frequented by the cash strapped and harbingers of the bouncing cheque, then we show the world just how to give A Thousand Pokes to the classless upper classes and the wannabe nouveau riche who see the world as a plaything without understanding the most basic of rules.

Stick In The Wheel: A Thousand Pokes. Album Review. full post

(450 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Thorpe & Morrison: Grass & Granite. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Birmingham’s music scene has always been a vibrant beast, whether it was in the glorious heyday of bands such as The Moody Blues, Wizzard, E.L.O. through the 80s and 90s, and beyond revival which saw diversity lead through application and desire from bands such as Dexys Midnight Runners, Napalm Death, The Twang, and Ocean Colour Scene, prove with absolute conviction that there has always been a magnetic sense of groove and wit, coupled with wonderfully adhered to belief in light-hearted cynicism that has been the bedrock of expression in the former heartlands of the home of British Industry’s revolution.

Thorpe & Morrison: Grass & Granite. Album Review. full post

(456 words, 1 image, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

ENMY. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

When the rock community in Europe think of the sound that typifies the genre in America, it could be argued that the city of Cincinnati does not feature highly on the list of places that would necessarily make the listener think of being a natural home to the expression of the soul and the beat.

ENMY. Album Review. full post

(394 words, 1 image, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Apartment 7A. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Julia Garner, Dianne Wiest, Kevin McNally, Jim Sturgess, Marli Siu, Rosy McEwen, Andrew Buchan, Anton Blake Horowitz, Raphael Sowole, Tina Gray, Patrick Lyster, Rachel Atkins, Andre Lillis, Hannah Morley, Nikkita Chadha, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Patricia Jones, Tina Chiang, James Swanton, Amy Leeson, Scott Hum.

One of the main issues with a prequel written years after the original was filmed is that it can, if not researched properly by the writers, deflect from the narrative that made what followed an act of cinematic glory.

Apartment 7A. Film Review. full post

(570 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Fleetwood Mac: Mirage Tour ’82. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

With no new music forthcoming from the legendary Fleetwood Mac, added with the fallout involving Lindsey Buckingham and the rest of the band, and the sadness that envelopes the fan as they remember the seismic talent lost in the form of Christine McVie’s passing, the only way possible to keep the interest of the public is in innovative releases, of plunging into the live recordings during their long and illustrious career; and as the sound of the expansive release of the Mirage Tour ’82 fills the air, so the machine, the love continues onwards.

Fleetwood Mac: Mirage Tour ’82. Album Review. full post

(414 words, 1 image, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Jon Boden And The Remnant Kings: Parlour Ballads. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Homes now are built with function and a mind to cramming as many people into a small space as possible. There is no room for gathering, the soiree, or occasion where an extended family or a large group of friends can seize the opportunity and pour themselves into position around a musical instrument and be entertained by the touch of music skilfully, or even just an amateur hour performed by the congregation themselves, is for the most part lost to another time, to another moment where Parlour Ballads were the rage and the indication of a good time guaranteed.

Jon Boden And The Remnant Kings: Parlour Ballads. Album Review. full post

(403 words, 1 image, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)