Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The temperature rose, the emotions were felt and left to simmer, and it is only right that now Milton Hide’s husband and wife duo, Jim and Josie Tipler, return to the scene of their creative outlet and serve a second helping of their inspiring music, one of the same aural values, but one cut from a different and more varied recipe.
In The Holloway, Milton Hide bring solace to the soul as the sense of atmosphere changes the perception of the sound, the flavour of the full drama of the acoustic venture, aided by Phil Jones, Simon Yapp, and Bruce Knapp, is that in which you embrace the simplicity of the structure, but marvel at the ingenuity at the same time.
To be serenaded as though you were the only one in the room is to understand the love on offer. When you give yourself over to the light and realise that others around you feel the same waves of emotion, that is when you get a grip on what it means to be part of something, an experience, bigger than yourself; and that is exactly how Jim and Josie Tipler have created…an album of charm, of sincerity, of interpretation of how to transfix a crowd without once ever letting go of belief.
More than just songs in which to while away time and the pleasant circle of life, Milton Hide brings together songs that are as unique as they unrepentant in their delivery. From the opening stirring passage of All Gone South, the excellent The Ballad Of Gabriel Oak, Widow’s Revenge, Sparkle Jar, and Unsaid, Milton Hide walk you gently to a place of persuasion and the river of constant dreams, the music is tender, sympathetic, but one of adventure, for in the hollow, in the way of the natural tunnel comes shelter and possibility, there comes a feeling of contentment.
A smooth delivery, a second album which exemplifies the chemistry unbound and ready to be released. The Holloway is the pace you go to when in need in being set free.
Milton Hide release their second album, The Holloway, on March 31st.
Ian D. Hall