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Product Description
Review
Singer, pianist, songwriter and queen of the droll one-liner, Belinda O’Hooley’s larger-than-life personality played such a significant role in the rise of Rachel Unthank & the Winterset that many doubted they’d survive long without her when she quit in 2007.
They were wrong but, having contributed two of the most emotive songs – Blackbird and Whitethorn – to The Unthanks’ breakthrough album The Bairns, her next move was always going to be intriguing. It is. Now in partnership with fellow Yorkshire singer/songwriter Heidi Tidow, O’Hooley’s gift for a charged lyric, a dramatic arrangement and a compelling tune is undiminished, flowering on two remarkable tracks in particular – Too Old to Dream and One More Xmas. Aside from her incidental roles as lesbian icon and former Annie Lennox impersonator, O’Hooley’s day job was entertaining in old people’s homes and Too Old to Dream is a sentimental, yet still intensely moving picture of faded memories, melded into the old Sigmund Romberg/Oscar Hammerstein II standard and a recording of a Dewsbury care home resident.
If it ever escapes above the radar, One More Xmas might also one day be recognised as a classic. Thoughtful, provocative, yearning and deeply poignant, it’ll resonate with anyone who’s lost a loved one or wilts under grown-up responsibilities, and may just be the best seasonal song written since Fairytale of New York.
Not that the rest should be dismissed easily. All Stand in Line sounds like an anthem of sorts; Flight of the Petrel wields virulent symbolism; and Que Sera is a slowly menacing brute of a song inspired by the execution of Edith Cavell, which also provides the album’s title. If this makes the album sound dark, complex, melancholic and forbidding, then maybe it is. But patience and persistence hold their rewards and there is a throwaway children’s song Banjololo, an unaccompanied Cold & Stiff and a lovely arrangement of the traditional Spancil Hill for variety.
Former bandmate Jackie Oates turns up playing fiddle, and with Anna Esslemont and Cormac Byrne of Uiscedwr adding textures, O’Hooley and Tidow’s considerably weighty material is carried lightly. --Colin Irwin
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OBSERVER (Neil Spencer)
The spare dramatic piano parts that Belinda O'Hooley formerly brought to The Unthanks have grown into rippling, neo-classical arrangements on this first album with fellow singer and song-writer Heidi Tidlow. The duo's folk roots show through but their agenda is originality.The meld of strings, piano and vocal harmonies is striking and refreshingly ambitious. A bold, unsetlling debut.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dark and folky,
By
This review is from: Silent June (Audio CD)
This is the debut album from O'Hooley & Tidow, though some of you will be familiar with Belinda O'Hooley from her time with Rachel Unthank and the Winterset. The Unthanks loss (and I think it is considerable) is our gain, as she has teamed up with Heidi Tidow to produce a rich and rewarding album. This is not a Belinda O'Hooley solo album though. Heidi Tidow is a full and equal part of the relationship. Apart from the traditional 'Spancil Hill' and 'Banjololo' all he songs here were written by the duo. And what songs! from the beautiful and genuinely touching 'Too Old to Dream' to the social commentary of 'All stand in Line', they are songs with something to say, but not in a hectoring or lecturing way. Often the lyrics are more impressionistic than narrative, but there are stories to be told, and they are told well. Then there are the musical arrangements. Delecate where they need to be, but also rousing, dark, and beautiful, often all at the same time. Underpinned by imaginative piano, they are lifted by great vocal harmonies, and textured with carefully crafted string quartet arrangements. This will undoubtedly be one of my albums of the year, and it's only february! The sepia tones on the album cover are a good clue to what lies within. If you can handle your music dark and folky this is a great album.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a fairytale of north england,
By
This review is from: Silent June (Audio CD)
This is a wonderful album and on the back of their recent UK tour of festivals, of which I had the fortune and pleasure of seeing these lovely gentle ladies twice, makes this album a happy reminder of those times. the album is crammed full of dreamy vocals, soaring piano melodies and yearning, saturnine string arrangements that are swept along on a storybook of songs from times of auld. being a collator of music and living a life seeking out new styles and ever hopeful of unique sounds, these ladies bring an originality to a music industry that is unfortunately steeped in production line monotone music and that only occasionally produces albums that spark excitement and emotion like this. It is a stunning album and from the many albums I have heard and bought this year, Silent June is in my opinion far and away the best. a beautifully crafted gem of an album that is just waiting for your senses to discover.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece,
By
This review is from: Silent June (Audio CD)
O'Hooley and Tidow's Silent June (my constant companion for several weeks now) is truly wonderful - each track is a masterpiece of good songwriting, delightful vocals and musical innovation (crossing folk and classical boundaries) and the whole album fits together beautifully. Unsurprisingly, given that one half of the duo was in Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, it's reminiscent of The Unthanks' fine album The Bairns, but in my view is even better.
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