Artist – Shadow Captain
Album – April Moon
Release date – 2nd April 2021
Reviewer – Ian D Hall
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating
It feels so long since we had the chance to see our surroundings that is reflected by the April Moon, that the clarity of the sky and horizon which comes before the heat haze of summer’s yearning takes over, is long overdue and deserving of acknowledgement and praise.
It is too early spring where the thoughts of renewal become clearer, more pronounced, the yearning for beauty after months of darkness and the bitter cold of human truth, is to where the artist’s mind must turn and for Shadow Captain, it is the unveiling of his statuesque new album, April Moon.
Some of the songs on this latest release will be recognisable to Shadow Captain’s fans and followers, the tracks having been made the last year been one of promise instead of the bug bear in which audiences were facing without the pleasure of feeling the pulse of live entertainment. That does not mean that the sons are not as worthy quote the contrary, they sit with elegance in the whole
It is in the setting of the entire album that the sons truly come alive, as if they were stand-alone chapters which gave enormous pleasure, but when read in their entirety and in the context of a 300-page extravaganza, they become entwinned with the thoughts of the reader, they become more than just a moment, they last forever.
Across tracks such as Clandestine Lover, the melancholic and despair of loss in Death of A Friend, the sublime The Pan Piper, the beauty of love for something other another human being in Hey Django, the excellent Song For Gideon and the album title track of April Moon, Liverpool’s Shadow Captain has brought together a collection of songs that are more than just to be seen as continuations and additions, they are the backbone and the full soul of the story, the chronicles of the Shadow Captain, his life and experience on full show.
“One may suffer Hell with demons for the sake of a moment with an angel”, April Moon is more than a moment, it is the perfect response to the time we have lived through.
Review © 2021 Ian D Hall for Liverpool Acoustic
April Moon is available on Bandcamp from 2nd April.
Shadow Captain
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