Tag Archives: album review

Rise Against, The Black Market. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Life is worth fighting for; it should never be placed into the open ended furnace in which desire and thought are too readily disposed in the pursuit of the quick fix and the so called unwelcome. Even when something doesn’t grab you at the first attempt it should at least be explored at least another couple of times so you can at least give it due consideration. Nothing is truly non-descript or distinctly average and that goes for music at the best of times.

Rise Against, The Black Market. Album Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Lizzie Nunnery And Vidar Norheim, Songs Of Drink And Revolution. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Songs of Drink and Revolution, something that has been lost, eroded in the lifestyle of the comfortable in the last 50 years, the chance to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with your brother and sister and bemoan the state the world.

The comfortable, perhaps through the lack of main stream national bands and musicians under a certain age refusing to go against a certain grain for fear of being labelled as something other than an artist with a social conscious, the comfortable being led down a path of least resistance with promises of everything today. Then there is Lizzie Nunnery and Vidar Norheim, who show that there is another path, a path laid down by the likes of Ian Prowse, The Levellers and Alun Parry before her, a path where Revolution is freely discussed and lauded.

Lizzie Nunnery And Vidar Norheim, Songs Of Drink And Revolution. Album Review. full post

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

Kilmara, Love Songs And Other Nightmares. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is always something that keeps even the sturdiest and happy go lucky minds awake during the hours of darkness, whether it the constant thought of repression, misplaced anger, guilt or unremitting sorrow, nightmares find a way into the deepest recesses and have an annoying habit of making you pay whilst you sleep as you do when you are awake.

What keeps them at bay can be just the knowledge that somewhere somebody truly loves you for whatever you and whatever you have done, tenderness and darkness so compatible, so alluring and cautious that it can only be described as Love Songs and Other Nightmares.

Kilmara, Love Songs And Other Nightmares. Album Review. full post

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

Richard Durrant, Cycling Music. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Imagine the days when a bike ride meant disappearing into the country for a while, round to nearest largest natural expanse of nature you could find or even when you could ride on the road unhindered by the feel of ever increasing technology dogging every turn of the wheel. Many have tried, and in some cases notably succeeded, to recapture what that feeling is like, to have the click of the milometer go up in stages before your eyes whilst taking in the surroundings without an engine interfering with the natural order of the world. Many have tried but Richard Durrant goes one stage further with his album Cycling Music, he captures the peace of the journey rather than the frenetic discombobulated three minute rage, the sunny day through winding roads and the taste of local food tempting the palate rather than the steam inducing affair of the Tour de France or of thousands of fans lining a route just to see a flash of sweat pass them by.

Richard Durrant, Cycling Music. Album Review. full post

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

Midge Ure, Fragile. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Midge Ure is arguably a man who has seen it all and lived it all, certainly when it comes to music. A member of one of the finest bands to come out of the U.K., the rich tapestry of working with the legendary Phil Lynot and Thin Lizzy, writing several hit songs including the superb Visage track Fade To Grey, Love’s Great Adventure, If I Was and been a founding member alongside The Boomtown Rats outspoken frontman Bob Geldof of Band Aid; and somehow in amongst it all somehow finding the precious time to keep going on the road and performing with absolute elegance to audiences up and down the country, he cannot be accused of being delicate.

Midge Ure, Fragile. Album Review. full post

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

Seether, Isolate And Medicate. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Every so often the urge to bang your head in time to the powerful beat playing out before you is so overwhelming that anyone with a serious neck condition might really have to think twice before disregarding a medical practitioners sage advice. On the other hand, you only live once and the music that Seether, the raw power that comes across from Shaun Morgan, Dale Stewart and John Humphrey amps should never get in the way of enjoying the unfolding spectacle.

Seether, Isolate And Medicate. Album Review. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

The Royal Southern Brotherhood, Heartsoulblood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

No limits, that’s all you can ever truly hope for in life. To be able to live with the knowledge that all that you have done is all that you could physically do; that there was no quarter given, no hidden page left unread and sequel available as every possible plot point and character development had been written in to the life story. Records and music is like that also, except that where the blood sweat and tears of one album runs deep into the furthest recess of the heart, there is always room for more of the same, or even a deviation from the artistic norm, of a second “difficult” album.

The Royal Southern Brotherhood, Heartsoulblood. Album Review. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Jules Carter Trio, Done Misbehaving. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If you think you don’t like the Blues, if the thought of a century worth of music is not for you and that Robert Johnson is just a name that holds no fascination then the best thing to do would be to start at the beginning of Jules Carter Trio’s album, Done Misbehaving, and throwing every single odd piece of prejudice out of the window and fall in love with a set of songs that just cry out for attention.

Jules Carter Trio, Done Misbehaving. Album Review. full post

(440 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Uriah Heep, Outsider. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Regardless of when you may have first come across Uriah Heep, it is an argument worth having that they have been unfortunately been forgotten by many as one of the pioneers of British Heavy Rock and part of The Progressive movement.

Influential on many and yet the popularity of Mick Box’s band has never really attained, especially in later years the popularity they so deserved aside from having many totally enamoured with a couple of early 1970s albums including the superb Salisbury.  Whether the latest release by Uriah Heep, the elegant sounding Outsider, can change that perhaps remains to be seen but in a world that allows certain acts that have gone on reality television shows to garner a following, then surely Uriah Heep can have another sojourn in the unknown world of popular Rock music.

Uriah Heep, Outsider. Album Review. full post

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

Vintage Blue, No Going Back. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Chicago just happens to be one of the great American cities, full of wonder, a sense of heritage and iconoclasm having been showered upon it as one of the Great Lakes feeds its natural hunger and gives the city its cold stirring breath in winter and baked beautiful days in summer. It has been the resting place of American Mob culture, of iconic films and even more iconic bands, for example the truly distinguished band that bares the cities name. To the North Canada, to the East New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Boston and nothing rivals it as hub of industry and humanity till you reach the southern shores of the country. It is truly a remarkable city. From out of that place in which Lake Michigan freezes and drives an icy blast comes a smashing new band, Vintage Blue, and their album No Going Back.

Vintage Blue, No Going Back. Album Review. full post

(514 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)