Reviewed by Chris Sharp

The is the debut album from Andy "Bleeding Hands" Hughes, singer/songwriter from Stockport. With mainly vocals and acoustic guitar, arrangements are straight forward, but striking - its Andy's distinctive voice that immediately grabs you by the scruff of the neck with the opener "Promised Land" and only lets you go kicking and screaming to the closing refrain of the live version that ends the album. Comparisons have been made to Nick Drake and Tom Waits, and vocally Tom Robinson also springs to mind. This is by no means the happiest album I've heard recently, but it's engaging and it makes a change to hear every single word sung. Sorrowful, yet joyfully emotive. Simple, yet strangely complex. A rather ambivalent feeling album! There are a full 15 tracks; 10 studio recorded and five live tracks from Andy's gigging around Manchester. If anything that's a bit too long and because of the simple arrangements you'd be forgiven for thinking that you'd accidentally put your CD player on repeat. I think the addition of a full band would really lift these songs to another level giving a much more colourful palette for the artist to express himself. A good start for a first recording and hopefully this will bring Andy the opportunity to do much more.

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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