Music News – 29th June 2011

Opening track ‘For Your Sake’’s blissful folk guitar and soft vocals set a sweet and sentimental tone to the album, showcasing Blake’s sophisticated take on a more traditional style of love song. Blake’s versatility is evident throughout the album, with his impressive vocals on more folk-pop style tracks such as ‘Heart and Soul’ and ‘Simon’ ever providing a sense of comfort for the listener. You and Other Stories presents Blake’s apparent romanticism in a more sophisticated and advanced way, and in various genres. Somewhat anomalous track ‘Tell Me Beth, Do You Recall’ creates a welcomed sense of variation and is wonderfully executed with Blake’s poetic and imaginative lyrics.

So too with ‘Gypsy Fireflies’, a honeyed and sunny track once again showing off a sense of loveliness with its soft vocals. Blake’s sweet narrative of ‘Show Me The Way To The Sun’ is no doubt a lush and idealistic journey which fantastically marries a dreamy and hopeful melody with perhaps more pessimistic and heart-breaking lyrics like ‘I fear that we’re coming undone’; a real highlight of this settled, yet relaxed folk album. You and Other Things truly does reach its peak tempo in penultimate track ‘I Felt Alive’ in which Blake provides more of a country folk sound to the album, again applauded by the listener, a change of sound nonetheless retaining his ever sweet lyrics.

Album closer ‘Sinners and Saints’ sees a return to the soft and relaxed sound heard at the start of the album, showing off Blake’s talent as a singer-songwriter. With Liam Blake’s evident sense of musical passion and obvious knack for songwriting, You and Other Stories is a structurally varied debut, and a mature and most pleasing one at that. With his imaginative marriage of soft acoustic and folk-pop, You and Other Stories is a definite listen for anyone who appreciates good music written by a talented lyricist. Charlotte Stone