04 May 2009
Birmingham Independent
MyBrumTv

THE youngest child of two blind parents, Pittsburgh-born multi-instrumentalist William Fitzsimmons wrote ‘Goodnight' in the dark aftermath of his parents' divorce and the result is an album that sparks every emotion from sadness in opener ‘It's not true,' to denial in ‘Never Let You Go' and acceptance in ‘After all.'
Each song on the album is very calming, almost as though ‘Goodnight' is a series of grown-up lullabies that are as gentle and delicate as they are magnificent and groundbreaking. Each track comes straight from the heart and is sung with such emotion that it is clear throughout that Fitzsimmons is reliving his dark path and putting every inch of passion into his singing as he has regret and bad feeling for what has been.
For deep meaning and emotional orchestration, few fare better than William, whose songs cover a range of subjects from dealing with his parent's blindness, to their divorce and even his very own.

It is clear that he has had a diverse and interesting life and every day of it is compressed into his beautiful songs and delicate harmonies.
Perhaps the most personal of songs to William, and by far the most relative track on the album, ‘Everything has Changed' is about his father and explains the pointed expression of anger that he had over his family falling apart as a consequence of his parent's divorce.
His instrumentals set the tone for the album and he uses everything from acoustic guitar to banjo, to melodica and bouzouki to clarinet and cello, to recreate the feelings he had growing up.

‘Body For My Bed,' is expertly delivered and fantastically written, an uplifting harmony about the importance of coming to terms with bad things happening and moving on. It explores the themes of loneliness, warmth and has an endearing sense of betrayal, the feeling of wanting to move on at any cost.
‘Goodnight' is the moment in William's story when the end is near and what is broken can no longer be fixed and is excellently performed with strained vocals and soft whispers, creating a moving melody that is spacious and magnificent.
And finally, his long and emotional story is drawn to a close with the sensational ‘Find My Way Home' and the seminal ‘Afterall,' accepting that everything is different and looking for the very best way to move on.

What he has done is create an album that can trigger every single emotion inside you and even crank at some you never even knew you had. At times, you feel his pain but you also feel his passion and finally, his joyous realisation that in life, things do change and everything can become completely different in minutes. At least you have one thing that will last forever - memories. And with an album as impressive as this one, it will only serve to become something of an inspiration to everyone who hears it.