O'Hooley & Tidow: The Hum – review

Belinda O'Hooley and Heidi Tidow are a remarkable couple, matching exquisite harmony vocals with increasingly original songwriting. This new album is their most experimental to date, with O'Hooley's fine piano and accordion work (first heard when she played with the Unthanks) now matched against a gently startling array of sounds provided by producer Gerry Diver, who adds everything from fiddle, guitar and percussion to electronics. Their last album was concerned with the fragility of life, but here the themes are more varied, but equally universal. There are thoughtful, inventive songs about industry, migrant workers and war alongside a sturdy tribute to Pussy Riot; an exquisite lament about motherhood and sacrifice; a mystical love story about a fox who becomes a woman, and a haunting treatment of Ruins By the Shore, the Nic Jones song of time and decay. Surely one of the albums of the year.