Liverpool indie band Cast have recently released their seventh studio album `Love Is The Call` their first album recorded as a three-piece comprising of singer and rhythm guitarist John Power, lead guitarist Liam “Skin” Tyson and drummer Keith O’Neill, with Power also playing bass on an album for the first time since he was in his previous band The La’s. John has hinted that the new album feels like a missing link between his time with The La’s and Cast’s first breakthrough with their debut album ‘All Change.’
We are introduced to this release with `Bluebird` a delightfully stripped back and raw offering with vocals and strummed acoustic guitar. A thoughtful introduction and a marker for what`s to follow. The song like the symbolic nature of the bird may well allude to hope, peace and contentment. An introspective number about the cycle of life `First Smile Ever` has an anthemic positive message about how small changes can be inspiring and uplifting
`The Rain That Falls` to me harks back to what I call `classic` Cast, a foot tapping driving rock number that might appear lyrically simple but so stunningly effective, musing on everyday observations as to how the rain can affect your mood. The type of precipitation in which liquid drops of water fall toward the surface of the earth may be a metaphor on life in general. I read somewhere that `Faraway` was described as an ode to perseverance through tough times. Frontman John Power says: “‘Faraway’ is a classic pop song, all jangling guitars with an instant hook line and melody that lifts off from the word go. The song is about trying to find your voice in a world that doesn’t care or seem to want to listen. As the world turns into the shadows, the sun still burns so far away, and the dreams you keep until tomorrow, they sometimes feel so far away.” Thoughtful, meditative and anthemic really says it all.
`Love You Like I Do` is a love song that stretches itself between the emotions of a love forever felt and a love forever lost, and what follows is uncomplicated but so powerful. Title track `Love Is The Call` is drenched in melodies, hooks and is possibly a psychedelic tinged celestial call to arms with intricate and complex guitar riffs that race off.
`Starry Eyes` has a powerful rhythm section of bass, guitar and guiding drum beat leading along. A kind of note of defiance, rebelliousness but tinged with reality. A wish to be able to view our existence as having its share of problems but also its highs. The melodic `whoo whoos` brought to mind the Rolling Stones harmonies with, at times blistering guitar riffs that underlay the vocal delivery which has an occasional naïveté or innocence. I thought we were heading into Iggy Pop`s `Lust For Life` with the intro to `I Have Been Waiting`. It has a slender punk like vibe with splayed guitar riffs all over the place.
There was an immediate Liverpool or Merseybeat ambience about `Look Around` a foot tapping, fist in air puncher. A charmingly reflective number follows with `Time Is Like A River` which lyrically alludes to where we all hold on to things from the past. A profound nigh on philosophical number that has just the right amount of balance. I thought the addition of horns or brass added a further poignancy to this track.
The album closes out with `Tomorrow Call My Name` another absorbing composition with a slightly melancholic insightful viewpoint or outlook.
`Love Is The Call` has it all, foot stompers, anthemic singalongs and more pensive thought provoking submissions. Everything we`ve come to expect of a Cast album and much more. John Power has hinted that this may be the bands last album and I for one really hope it isn`t.
Fellow Liverpudlian John Lennon once said and sang that “a working class hero is something to be” and for me Cast have always been for a number of us, a band that advocate or espouse that working class hero mentality, long may they continue.
Rating 9/10
