Who better to rip up the singer/songwriter copybook and offer up instead a far superior text than a coterie of Liverpudlians? The Great Liverpool Acoustic Experiment is precisely what it claims, an 18-track collection of divergent musical views sharing little beyond geography and a desire to shake up the acoustic world. Stars (including members of
Space,
Cast, and the Las), local heroes (among them
the Christians and
Ian McNabb), and fresh faces all have a go and succeed brilliantly.
The very breadth of styles alone is enough leave listeners awestruck. From Delta blues to Memphis R&B, C&W twang to angels floating a high, evocative ambience to pretty pop, depth-filled rich pieces to stripped-down numbers, weirdness to wonder, and everything in between, Experiment shimmers with creativity. Thematically, the album is just as diverse: romance and road songs, spooky spiders and spirituality, paranoia and plain talking, a huge spectrum of human emotion and experience -- all reflected within. It's one hell of a ride, one that will lift you to the clouds then bounce you back firmly to the ground, and you're guaranteed to delight in every minute of the journey. ~ Jo-Ann Greene