Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
It is better to have your head in the clouds than to see the depths of Hell that others will sink to as they chase dreams that are to be acknowledged as misaligned to humanity’s best interests.
That is the idea, to ignore those that seek to bring inequality, disharmony, unrepentant anger and fear to the people, the hope that they will go away, dwindle in number, their rhetoric being jeered by right-minded people. When in truth, what is actually required by all is to show them that love will always win out, that to dream of beauty and elegance is a monument to our time on Earth, rather than rising the tide of insufferable bilge uttered by those to whom sanctuary is to be cursed, and who see generosity of spirit as something to sneer at.
There are few words that capture the essence of Belinda O’ Hooley and Heidi Tidow with finer expression than that of beloved and undeniably cool. This is evident completely on their latest album release, Cloudheads, an album of generous warmth and insightful individuality, but also one that shows with pleasure the unison brought together by the dramatic harmony and fierce language of love woven in every step of every bar of music.
If the pair were an open secret to folk fans in the past, admired and greeted as a voice of the crowd made whole, then on the back of the superb arrangement they created for the television drama Gentleman Jack, they have soared, quite rightly, to a place where all who find them are enraptured by their honesty, their song writing, and the precision and depth of their commitment to bring empathy to a wider level of appreciation.
We can all sit in wonder of our dreams, be the cloudheads in which others point and accuse of not adhering to social company, but we must be ready to put them in their place when we have been given our inspiration, when we have accepted that time to deliver others from their personal hell is nigh.
Across tracks such as the opening songs of Worn Out And Full Of Wonder, Little Crumb, and The Song Thrush, and deeper internal joys of Matthew And Ted, Woman In Space, Polly, and The Ballad Of Anne And Ann, Belinda O’ Hooley and Heidi Tidow bring delight and empathy, colourful persuasion, and fierce insistence to the fore, and it is the Cloudheads that such exposed passion for their craft is given the right scenery in which to excel and thrive.
An album which reflects the sincerity of spirit to be found in the duo, a love that is free to be sung, songs which are forever saving those from their own damnation.
O’ Hooley & Tidow release Cloudheads on April 21st.
Ian D. Hall