22. February 2025
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Media Review

Al Lewis – Fifteen Years

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Al Lewis - Fifteen Years

Al Lewis - Fifteen Years
5

Rating

 5.0/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Great storytellingq
  • Very touching songs
  • Straight, lovely listen

In December 2021, I for the first time featured music by the Welsh singer-songwriter Al Lewis. I ran into his EP Moving On Moving Past through a promotion platform. On 12th January 2024, he is releasing his new album named Fifteen Years. Again, I had the opportunity to listen to the album before release and share my thoughts with you.

 

Al Lewis – About The Artist

Al Lewis was born in 1986. His songbook contains English and Welsh songs. However, the first steps of his musical career were in a cover band. He also released one album, the 2016 release Ghost with Alva Leigh, naming the duo simply Lewis & Leigh. Overall, Fifteen Years is already his ninth studio album. The previous one is named Te yn y Grug and has been published in 2020. Fifteen Years reminds of ol memories Al Lewis found in the attic, 15 years after the death of his father.

 

Al Lewis – Fifteen Years – Track by Track

The ten track album lasts 34 minutes.

1. Sunshine in Sorrow

These first 4:24 minutes feel like the perfect introduction to the album. The song is a beautiful, gentle recording. Al Lewis is supported by a female background singer and even sings a passage of the song in Welsh. The song increases its energy level for the first four minutes, before it breaks down in a fade out.

2. Never Be Forgotten

While Sunshine in Sorrow comes with a folk music touch, the second track Never Be Forgotten comes with stronger pop touch. The song is a beautiful musical memory to his father – or as Al Lewis states in the lyrics, For as long as there is breathe in my lungs, you will never be forgotten. Love it!

3. In My Daughters’ Eyes

A break-up, but still the bond of love between father and son. The father left the family when Al Lewis was five. Al Lewis can describe the feelings much better than I could ever do with words. The gentle third track is another lovely and very touching listen. And you are the glimpse in my daughters’ eyes. Ain’t that amazing?

4. Where Do I Go From Here

And now I’m the one who is the father of two, I’m seeking advice from the ghost of you. The song is full of doubt and uncertainty, but also full of of love and admiration for his father. What will I say when the truth will hurt? Al Lewis asks these questions which likely any parent has from time to time.

5. Fatherly Guidance

I can so well relate to this song when Al Lewis states But now I miss that fatherly guidance from you. I guess everybody who misses his or her father does so. And that makes this album so intimate, but also so touching. And songs like Fatherly Guidance become that valuable and wonderful.

6. Thirty Five

I’m thirty-five and I’m already looking for a second wife are the opening words of the sixth song. However, the song is not a struggling one. Furthermore, there is a very optimistic touch when Al Lewis states but I know she is out there, somewhere waiting for me. A song full of appreciation of what has happened in Al Lewis’ life so far – and full of pleasant anticipation about what lies ahead.

7. Fifteen Years

I finally cleared your household – it only took me fifteen years. Not only the opening of the title track tells you that this is the central story of the album. Just Al Lewis and the piano, telling what has happened to his father. It hurts to be in your house again, looking through old photographs. So many that made me laugh. Al Lewis is just an excellent storyteller. Maybe just because he is sharing stories straight from his heart with us in this album. After two minutes of memories, the song gets a surprising, but beautiful change.

8. The Farmhouse

The song is about transition, told based on the story of The Farmhouse. It now belongs to an English and no longer a Welsh family any more. Or, like Al Lewis says, This land isn’t our land any more. A very dramatic song, which is even very touching in the Welsh lyrics part.

9. Feels Like Healing

The ninth song is about all the moments, which make you remind of a beloved person. For example, Al Lewis is very touched each and every year by Father’s Day. Nonetheless, there is also a positive touch in this very personal listen – something, which you find in many songs of this album.

10. Beginning to Find You

I’m beginning to find you in everything that I do. Not that the album is full of emotions already, it closes with these 104 second. Short, a simple message, but so beautiful, so touching. I can’t prevent having tears in my eyes when I listen to these words and the piano tunes.

 

Al Lewis – Fifteen Years – Spotify

Here is Fifteen Years on Spotify:

 

Al Lewis – Fifteen Years – My View

The year 2024 is just less than two years old – and it already comes with an outstanding album. Al Lewis created a massive musical memorial for his father. I felt all the stories he told us about his personal stories – and also thought about my own story in it. The first album to make the full rating this year. Thank you, Al Lewis.

Favorite Song: Beginning to Find You

 

The Flyctory.com Club of Excellence

There are not too many reviews (of any kind) which make it to a 5.0 on Flyctory. Praise the best ones:

 

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