Greatest Gift - Liberty 37

...and Cliff Harris (drums). The Greatest Gift was their debut album, and though it was followed by The God Machine in 2002 they have, to my knowledge, split up. The fact Amazon no longer stock either album suggests they're probably out of print, but cheap copies can be found from the Marketplace or eBay, and I've noticed Virgin and HMV are increasingly clearing odd copies of random titles like this for as little as £1.99 these days if they have leftover ...
...in case you do see it.

Not the greatest gift, but a pretty decent one. (Though before anyone accuses the band of immodesty, I should add it's a line from 'Seize The Day' that gives the album its title: "The greatest gift is still yourself").
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It was around 1999 that I really started getting into a much wider range of music. Prior to that I'd graduated from my parents' likes and children's music to Nirvana, silverchair, Foo Fighters, etc but it was then that I started buying magazines, going to gigs and exposing myself to a lot more alternative artists. So it was I came to hear of Liberty 37 - though when I went on a week's geography fieldtrip in Swansea that summer, I'd barely have been able to miss the masses of fly-posters anyway.

A four-piece from the South Wales area, Liberty 37 consisted of Ishmael Lewis (vocals - who metal fans may have heard guesting on earthtone9's 'Yellow Fever'), Tim Batcup (guitar), Andrew Watkins (bass) and Cliff Harris (drums). The Greatest Gift was their debut album, and though it was followed by The God Machine in 2002 they have, to my knowledge, split up. The fact Amazon no longer stock either album suggests they're probably out of print, but cheap copies can be found from the Marketplace or eBay, and I've noticed Virgin and HMV are increasingly clearing odd copies of random titles like this for as little as £1.99 these days if they have leftover stock no one's heard of!

Being Welsh, Liberty 37 drew obvious comparisons to bands like Stereophonics and the Manic Street Preachers. I'd say the latter - in their mainstream (Everything Must Go) heyday - is probably more accurate, since there's a somewhat similar epic quality to Liberty 37. It's what used to be occasionally called 'emo', before that became some sort of goth-punk hybrid for wimpy rockers, when it just meant emotional rock music. Perhaps its life-affirming, almost spiritual tone could label it 'Christian rock' (and though religion isn't in your face, it may not be entirely inaccurate: several songs do touch on Biblical imagery), but that does little to define the sound.

I guess they could be put amongst Pearl Jam and post-grunge bands like Our Lady Peace, Live or in their heavier moments Oleander. Handy name-tags aside, it's fairly straight-ahead rock that's a bit heavier than commercial rock bands of the time (e.g. Oasis), yet certainly not hard rock/metal either - though I believe they did once support Motorhead!

Since Liberty 37 probably never sold enough albums to pay off the mortgage, frontman Ishmael Lewis was - and probably still is - an English teacher by day-job (indeed, I believe I once spoke to one of his students online). Whether that really shows in the lyrics I'm not sure, because it's fairly easy for anyone to write obscure or artfully pretentious 'poetic' lyrics that sound profound while being pretty meaningless. I think what really sets them apart is his voice, which does have an emotion-filled yearning quality to it when needed, that makes the songs stand out.

Generally most of the songs on the album can be categorised into either 'rockers' or, for want of a better word, 'ballads'. The album kicks off with 'Liars And Murders', which, until the vocals come in, could almost being Oasis. 'When We Say' and 'Revolution' are faster-paced and a bit more punky, though quite tuneful with it and certainly the kind of thing you could happily nod or sing along to if that way inclined. One of my favourites - perhaps only because it was the first I heard - is 'Oh, River' which marries some solid guitar-work with the band's sense of melody and some haunting-but-not-quite-sure-why vocals from Ishmael.

The other half of the album shows more of the band's softer, sensitive side, such as the mellow 'ABC… Giant Steps' and the nine-minute closing track 'Seize The Day'. Here, if I was being critical, a few songs like '23rd' let the album down a bit by being rather, shall we say, pedestrian - fairly slow-paced and not really going anywhere, they fit in well enough as album tracks, but don't really live up to the (more numerous) high points.

It's not an outstanding album, but it is a good one, especially for a debut, and deserved a bit more notice than it got. For anyone liking the heavier end of commercial rock, or generally uplifting, emotional rock music, vaguely in the vein of Manic Street Preachers, (recent) A, U2, etc - it may not be worth a special effort to track down the album, but keep an eye out in case you do see it.

Not the greatest gift, but a pretty decent one. (Though before anyone accuses the band of immodesty, I should add it's a line from 'Seize The Day' that gives the album its title: "The greatest gift is still yourself").
 

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