EP Review: Gravity by George Glew

George Glew has a phenomenal voice that soars. The Gravity EP collects five songs together, under the associated themes of space, gravity, light, astronauts and dreams. 

Glew’s soaring voice is important in this respect. It can act like a rocket, defying gravity, much like the way an astronaut would experience freedom: for a short time only.

The title track associates the idea of gravity with those natural everyday things that can weigh a person down. This ‘limiting’ idea is used in contrast to the human spirit, which can only overcome so many battles. Glew sings, “I know you find your way out every time / But it's only so damn much / You can take before you break inside.”

The song Astronaut takes a contrary tact. The subject of the song is already in space, floating above the world of everyday troubles. Glew does not want the responsibility of bringing someone back down to earth. Glew does not want to act like gravity. 

At the midpoint of this musical journey, one then faces up to the ugly truth that, “Oh, how it kills me /To know you're alright.” In this new configuration, the laws of the universe seem to have changed along with Glew’s place within it. Now that the subject of his devotion no longer needs him, there is burning resentment. 

This metaphorical rocket is falling to earth. Glew cannot call out - there being no sound in space. The song Satellites offers up new possibilities, however. In telecommunications, he can receive what he needs from his beloved. He needs the calming of the seas, he needs to see through the rain. 

There is no happy ending. The EP’s last track, Dream Song, ends in dissolution. Glew begins to grasp onto the requirement of self sufficiency: “I'm forgetting how to breathe / While you drift out of reach / And I'm trying to find a meaning.” Needing to get on with the business of everyday living, the search for meaning needs to be placed to one side, so one can remember how to breathe.

Waking up from the spell of an ecstatic love, then from an existential misery, small things start to matter again. The EP tracks this journey, in an impressive way. With each song approaching the same subject matter from a different angle, the collection works like a hermeneutical circle. There is not one truth, or one ultimate perspective. Rather, there are different moments in time and space, experienced differently.

Review by Glenn Robinson   

Single Review: Forgive or Forget by Sarah Close

There is something beatlesque in this song. It is in the vocal melodies, I think. In some parts, the vocal variation occurs at the end of the third line, trailing off somewhere new, creating an emotional lift. The touch is light but the added sonic texture brings a human quirkiness and I am immediately disarmed. I want to listen. I am ready.    

The song is conversational in tone. It is a song about one lover on the cusp of a decision, who requires some form of disclosure from their partner. It is a song about a moment in time that could change the future of the relationship, where the call for truth becomes the highest value. 

It is a beautiful moment the song captures.

Review by Glenn Robinson

Single Review: Rare by Frances

Here you will find a careful and subtle articulation of an expressed love, rarified in a safe place where only two people exist. Listening to this song, reminds me of a distant chamber, far above the street noises below. The song is almost silent. Breathing in such a place can be difficult; the air thinner. There is comfort and understanding in this chamber. 

‘When somebody says you're different / When they open up a scar / When they stare until their heads remember / Who you are.’

There is an intimacy not only in the words but also how they are sung. Here you will find an imagined place that brings us closer to heaven. It is a place where the beloved is fully seen. It is a place where defences are not necessary.    

This sense of defencelessness is really what makes the song work. Defencelessness is so closely tied to intimacy, of being in a place of safety and vulnerability. 

This song reminds me of a rare form of desire, where the desire for comfort or not needing to be on one's guard, forges the way towards the road of acceptance.  

Review by Glenn Robinson

Single Review: I Don’t Really Care About You by CMAT

There is much to like and admire here. There is a playfulness in the lyrical delivery, there are the beautiful melodies, the quirky keyboard fills, the uncrowded layering of instrumental elements. 

The song starts off in a straightforward way by employing a few drum beats, easily grabbing my attention. It is a new song but sounds like a classic. A song suited for the Sunday morning after the rough partying the night before; a song for reassessments and post mortems.

There is intertextuality too. The writer Marian Keyes is referenced, our protagonist comparing herself to a character being rewritten. This process of rewriting is a central theme. The song touches upon the distances between women who could/should be friends but somehow manage to settle for less. 

This song has many layers, both lyrical and musically. You could listen to this song twenty times back to back and find something new each time. After twenty times, I wager you still wouldn’t grow tired. 

Review by Glenn Robinson

Single Review: Virtual Reality by Renforshort

The musical textures on this track are remarkable. There is a wooden sound to the acoustic guitar, electronic hand claps, distorted singing as if a Zoom call is freezing.  

The lyrics are playful too; the opening lines are so simply condensed they operate like a Zip file: “18 plugged in and out of touch/ I think sometimes I think too much/ Self diagnosed with self sabotage.” One thought is falling on top of the other, meaning merges to create a sense of spacelessness. Everything is becoming 2D and so the yearning to return to childhood and wide open space becomes a new non-presence. 

This song is probably more relevant than it has ever been. While we have been staying at home due to government restrictions, our sense of reality is under severe pressure. The enormity of  what is happening in the outside world compounds the virtual reality of the internet like never before. 

There is no resolution yet. Just the interchange of images & feelings in an eternal loop. Only a desire for ‘something real’ opens up the possibility of change. 

Review by Glenn Robinson

Single Review: Baby Queen’s These Drugs

If there is a PR team promoting Baby Queen’s new single ‘These Drugs’, I am certain I am not part of the demographic they are trying to reach. I am probably much older than any projected fan base. I am almost old enough to be the artist’s father. 

That said, I don’t really care because the song writing is good - it’s really good. 

I am not of the opinion that all the best years of rock and pop music is behind us. I think we have only just started and Baby Queen is evidence of that. She is the real deal. She weaves lyrical detail into her songs in such a natural artless way. It is marvelous. The imagery is of this time and I am convinced her words will ring true to many other young women who are listening.

Baby Queen is extremely literate and she drops the F Bomb with as much ease as any other word. 

‘These Drugs’ feels like it is written from experience. The song is complex, up front and honest about wanting to get clean from a drug habit. There is irony working through the song - there is the courage of delving into the subject matter but also the realisation that, “I told you I don’t need help because I lied to myself.”

This is why projected demographics don’t matter. The song is essentially about human struggle, something that none of us, if we are honest with ourselves, are unfamiliar with.

Review by Glenn Robinson

Album Review: Ricky Warwick's new album 'When Life Was Hard & Fast'

I never realised how much I needed Ricky Warwick's new album When Life Was Hard & Fast until I had a listen. I found Rock ‘N’ Roll romanticism, tales of blood red moons, duelling guitars, rats that bask in the darkness of their unacknowledged crimes. 

It’s what I needed because the themes that run through these songs is that of unknown destinations, of never being content with the here and now, of finding the next kick. Even in ‘Time Don’t Seem To Matter’, Warwick sings, “If distance was a measurement, I’d always be by your side.” Then he adds, “I know where to find you. You’re always in the last place that I look.”

At a time when much of the world is in lockdown, when we cannot physically move anywhere, we still have our memories and imagination. 

The cover of the album has a scene of The Ards TT, a motor race from generations ago, located at the bottom of Warwick’s family farm. Connected in this image, is Warwick’s familiar ties. The location is where he was rared and bred, cut through with the wild madness of the pioneers of early racers.        

Already, there is the complexity of being rooted in a particular time and place, alongside the desire for adventure and creating something new for yourself. In a way, this juxtaposition is resolved in the song I Don’t Feel At Home.  He sings, “I don’t want to live in this world anymore.”

Notice, he is not singing “I don’t want to live.” This is not, as far as I can tell, a song about suicidal ideation. It is this world Warwick feels dissatisfaction with. It is this dissatisfaction that gives him the kick in the ass to get out and change things, to take to the road, to become a Rock'n'roller. 

It is this last point that makes this collection of songs the ultimate lockdown album. It is for those kindred spirits who want to change their worlds, it’s a call to arms. When Warwick sings, “Is there anyone out there still alive?” he is raising his voice above the mundane uniformity of the everyday. He has already given his answer; in his music, in his art. 

Review by Glenn Robinson