Deacon Blue: The Great Western Road. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

A sweet ballad to our journey, that is how we should be able to look back upon the road we have travelled, with poignancy, with affection, and with the occasional pair of tinted glasses that scrub out the worst moments of life when the moment and the muse were missing from our side; or the times when we found ourselves in melancholic ‘let’s remember’ and being terrified with an intensity of longing; that is the sum of our life as we drive along the highway to the music created and which gave our life meaning, purpose, and pleasure.

Deacon Blue: The Great Western Road. Album Review. full post

(509 words, 1 image, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Pete Townshend: The Studio Albums. Boxset Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

As with the enormously in-depth posthumous box set that covered the solo career of his band mate John Entwistle, the output of guitarist and main songwriter of The Who, Pete Townshend comes under the glorious scrutiny of the fan and listener alike in his own comprehensive collected edition, The Studio Albums.

Pete Townshend: The Studio Albums. Boxset Review. full post

(409 words, 1 image, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Tina Turner: Private Dancer. Box Set (2025) Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Private Dancer is arguably the album that saved Tina Turner’s career, widely credited in many circles, one that reignited her standing within the rock circuit, and one that gave others the right to call her the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll. It could have all been so different, she could have flatly refused to record the song Mark Knopfler offered her, she could have stuck to her guns and disappeared without a trace after a less than successful album run that had seen little faith bestowed upon her from the public after she was able to separate herself from Ike Turner, both in marriage, and more importantly as a woman abused by a system and a name.

Tina Turner: Private Dancer. Box Set (2025) Review. full post

(529 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Jenn Butterworth: Her By Design. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10


To be Her By Design is to rip up the rule book and the historic illusion passed down in traditional forms that do more than suggest that womanhood in storytelling was fraught by the magnitude of being overlooked as pandering to a stereotype that consisted of a limited number of possible outcomes; from fairy tales to folk music, there were so few ways in which a song for example could capture the essence of a woman, the complexity and viewpoints beyond heroine or princess requiring rescue, the old and disfigured witch like queen, or enchantress shunned by society…as award winning musician Jenn Butterworth rightly conveys in her new album, Her By Design, with authority and meticulous observation.


Jenn Butterworth: Her By Design. Album Review. full post

(423 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Lucy Boynton, Toby Jones, Toby Stephens, Mark Stephens, Joe Armstrong, Mark Stanley, Juliet Stephenson, Bessie Carter, Arthur Darvill, Laurie Davidson, Amanda Drew, Gloria Obianyo, Jack Staddon, Ed Sayer, Adam Lawrence, Tony Wadham, Sidney Jackson, Darren Charman, Tim Pierpoint, Maddy Hill, Rowan Robinson, Audrey Brisson, Nigel Havers.

We live in a different time, crimes for the most part that shocked a generation that was still living with the hangover from the Victorian era, and which carried a greater degree of punishment, now would be scoured over completely, every detail of the crime pursued and in some cases the public response would be more noticeable, more intense, as social media informed people of everything that was reported; and an awful lot that wasn’t.


A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story. Television Drama Review. full post

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

Eric Johanson: Live In Mississippi. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The Delta offered its name to an early pulse of the Blues, the ties that bind them both are historical, and deeply engrained, and for many who seek the comfort and melancholy that the genre provides, to live in the glorious state that frames the listener’s mind when surrounding themselves with the introspective licks and summoning notes is surely a must; a visit at the least, but to immerse yourself in the culture completely it requires commitment to the cause…and in modern terms of the Blues appreciation there are few that can perform to the crowd in such a way that it takes them back through time to the godfathers of another age, whilst all the time remaining feet firmly placed in the modern era.

Eric Johanson: Live In Mississippi. Album Review. full post

(436 words, 1 image, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Shane Alexander: Forever Songs. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

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We can only hope that any artist goes into their studio and thinks of the lasting effect of their art rather than the popularity, however fleeting, it can bring; that the songs, the plays, the stories written of aged memories and mischief set down, are Forever Songs and not just in the realms of the moment.

Shane Alexander: Forever Songs. Album Review. full post

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

The Twangtown Paramours: The Winds Will Change Again. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Certain people will see loss through the eyes of the indifferent, they will feel nothing for the person to whom their world has broken, perhaps shattered in ways that we cannot ever contemplate; however, people that show such truths upon their face and allow their hearts to become bitter will ultimately be wary when the winds of change blow with the icy stare of an Arctic freeze through their veins.

The Twangtown Paramours: The Winds Will Change Again. Album Review. full post

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

Ledley: Ledley. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Originality is the cornerstone of art, it requires oxygen, it expects progression, and it obliges when an idea comes to mind, one perhaps from left field as inspiration strikes, and as Ledley take to the avant-garde electronic self-titled debut, what transpires is an album that defies expectation and probability.

The album, Ledley, sees Ralph Clarkson, Chris Williams, and Riann Vosloo pay tribute to the Tottenham Hotspur’s player Ledley King and in the electronica improvisation the adventurous nature of the piece is intrinsic to the motion of unexpected subject matter given prominence and dutiful obligation.

Ledley: Ledley. Album Review. full post

(391 words, 1 image, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Milton Hide: Bungaroosh. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The temperature rose, the heat that has been kept constant has found the listener almost agog with anticipation of what the pairing behind the hugely inspiring Milton Hide could magic up next, and with expected enchantment and a sizeable nod to the composite nature of building that can be found on the Sussex coast, Bungaroosh is a true response to the world’s call for highly original music, and one that traverses genres with accomplishment and charm.

Milton Hide: Bungaroosh. Album Review. full post

(389 words, 1 image, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)