Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Even in the midst of dark times, it seems that poetry and poetic feeling are easy targets for others to decry, to shame it somehow as an expression of the uncomplicated and the effortless, to suggest that the tones meant to deliver comfort in extraordinary times are shallow, eager to please and drowning in their own contented juices. Such talk is not just a heresy against communication, it is an illustration of contempt for anyone daring to think of anything other toeing the perceived line, that the artist means nothing in a world of sour grapes and misinformation.