Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow are the contemporary English answer to the remarkable Canadian duo of Anna McGarrigle and her late sister, Kate. They sing together with the ease of a married couple, matching delicate and increasingly brave harmony vocals against O’Hooley’s thoughtful piano work. And they are exceptional songwriters, as they prove with this unusual set. They tackle English racism, cheap labour and confused voters in the poignant Made in England, written long before Brexit. Then there are songs about vulnerability, including a children’s hymn from 1900, now reworked as a bleak, threatening commentary on the church and child abuse, and a charming, epic love song inspired by orphaned elephants in Kenya. Then they add a tribute to the woman who helped the recovery of shell-shocked first world war troops by teaching them Morris dancing, and an exquisite treatment of Joni Mitchell’s River.
