Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

This release from Leon Rolyat (Leamington Spa singer/songwriter Noel Taylor's name spelt backwards) gets off to a passable start with the opening two tracks "Die Anna" and "Keep Your Heart Open" - the proceeds from any downloads of the latter song generously going to Water Aid. However, this 19 song collection - three of which are unlisted - soon descends into a mire of half-baked, demo quality recordings that make for a painful and embarrassing listen. For instance, the vocals on "Well If This Is Life" - and pretty much every other song - are achingly cringeworthy whilst the amateurish, cheap keyboard backing, coupled with some dreadful production, add further woe to the proceedings. In addition, lines such as "How I could get you on my knee/you got a great body/oh how pleasurable it would be" in "Face To Face" are not only awful but make for suspect subject matter whilst there seems to be no hint of anything faith-related in any of the lyrics.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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