Described once as "a feel-good album", Briony and the band would just feel just fine if you give them a listen. This isn't about selling, it's about sharing: ideas, heartaches, joys and stories. This is good, easy, complex and interesting listening.

19 MP3 Songs
POP: Beatles-pop, POP: with Live-band Production



Details:
Briony NoH! and the NoH! Showband play Live! and Querulous and don't care who knows about it. Abby Bordet's power drums and Cody Dote's driving bass lines provide the rhythm foundation that Julio Mexicatosis' gliding guitar and Briony's intense vocals build on. With full, sweeping orchestrations one minute, a blues trio and a couple of solos the next, there's lots going on on this live follow-up album to The Times Square Principle.

A special mention for some of the tracks:

The shamelessly Beatles inspired MAKES SENSE TO ME (NOW) harks back to the heyday of songwriting and makes a few wry observations of its own.

ALIBI - a quest for a past? Solid bass and drums carry this melancholy song out of despair and into dancability.

AND and SLOPIN' ALONG, have an air of "we just made this up, what do you think", but listen more carefully (particularly to AND) and you'll spot that simplicity can be deceptive.

WE HAD A REASON (TO BE TOGETHER) has its blues roots set firmly in the John Mayall/Fleetwood Mac camp (if you don't know who Fleetwood Mac were before the Rumours album, you don't know Fleetwood Mac) and sits easily around their campfire roasting marshmallows.

DON'T GO, WHO'LL HAVE ME? and ANGEL IN MY EYES round off the album with orchestra and choir providing essential support for songs that ask the real questions on everyone's minds.

And in amongst these highpoint moments are little gems of songs, like LOOK AROUND, SOMEONE and my favourite, the minimalist HAVE YOU?

But best of all is the finale which features the soulful MORE THAN A LOVER, a heartfelt PRAYER FOR PEACE (Julio's guitar playing on this almost made me cry - for all the right reasons!) and a reprise of WHO'LL HAVE ME, opening the question of the title up to everyone - in the end, just who exactly will have us?

And then there's the encore (the sardonic yet optimistic SO IT GOES)!

With seventeen stylish songs in around seventy-two minutes (and I understand that the live show went on for another couple of songs and even featured a fair amount of balletic dance) the NoH! Showband gives us serious value for money.

A fine, dramatic, comical, fun album and a great introduction to the NoH! Sound.

Stephen Walker