Sean Taylor
Album: Chase The Night
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.seantaylorsongs.com

It will come as a surprise to no one that I await the next with increased anticipation. As with Moore's Law in computing, Sean's Law is that each album he produces will be bigger and better than the previous cut. So far he's achieved that with every release and yet with album number six nearly upon he remains unknown in a lot of households, whatever happened to justice, oh yes it's for the rich.

As with every Sean Taylor release, I was concerned that my anticipation was going to leave me slightly cold, surely there is a limit to the boundaries of Sean's Law, well if there is "Chase The Night" is not going to be the album that breaks it. Arguably it's his most personal, the album that comes closest to capturing what makes him tick and in that juxtaposition that is emotional quotient, that also makes it the most accessible to date.

"Chase The Night" is a very London centric album, it captures the spirit and politics of the city in song, music and poetry, that alone should extend the appeal of this album to a population of some thirteen million people, but it's not the location that is important in the listening, it's the passion it inspires. For example "Biddy Mulligans" a song about the lost pub/venue, isn't a song about the venue, it's a song about the community that loved and lost the venue, something that impacts people all around the country, in my case this could be a song about The Brickies.

What is really superb is the beautiful sound he gives those songs, whether delivering them with his trademark guitar lead or one of those regular forays he makes onto the piano when he's putting an album together and which you don't here enough of live, but pianos are notoriously difficult to get on trains. It's generally recorded in a troubadour blues style, but on this album, Sean, with his sign off track "River", makes his first foray into accompanied poetry.

This is also the first album that Sean has taken a single from, with "London", featuring the signature bass of Danny Thompson, being released at the start of the Summer. I've been a very lucky boy and I've had this album for a little while, it's accompanied me in many locations and moods, it's been a big feature on journeys, both physical and emotionally and somehow seems to be at home with all of them.

"Chase The Night" is Sean Taylor's best album, to which I'm going to have to add, 'to date', because quite simply it just gets better and better. Sean has that ability to turn a life perspective into a series of great songs and surely at some point justice must be seen to be done and he gets the recognition that is his due.

Neil King