Artist – Shadow Captain
Single – Lavender Way
Release date – 5th February 2021
Reviewer – Chumki Banerjee
Shadow Captain takes a more leisurely trip to the wistfully named Lavender Way, where ‘life’s gone astray’ for a ‘so called friend’.
We all know that person, whom we want to like, whom we feel we should support, who draws us, but also drains us, drives us to despair, glad to be going home, to be alone. We have all made that journey, to sip sweet tea, dip Rich Tea, dispensing sympathy.
All of that expressed in a slip of a song, which skips along. That is Stuart’s gift, clarity of captivating expression through words and music. His songs effortlessly draw you into a very specific scenario, which springs to technicolour life, in imagination, with just a few strokes of the brush.
Despite the so-called friend’s self-obsession, and Stuart’s urge to get away, this song is especially poignant in times like these, where tea and sympathy cannot be shared, where lack of actual human contact is so isolating, that people feel in complete despair, stuck in dismal situations, home alone, abandoned in suburban squalor, where street names spin dreams which don’t deliver.
As this song adds its amplitude to the wave of solace, Stuart’s ever empathetic voice flows like honey over troubled waters, a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.
Review © 2021 Chumki Banerjee for Liverpool Acoustic
Lavender Way is available on Bandcamp from 5th February.
Shadow Captain
Want to write for Liverpool Acoustic?
Do you love music? Fancy yourself as a writer? If so and you’d like to join our team of reviewers get in touch on our Contact page.
We’re always on the lookout for people to write reviews of live music and music releases, plus interviews and other features that support the local acoustic music scene.
Check out the rest of our Liverpool Acoustic reviews here.
Single review: Shadow Captain – Lavender Way