The Milk - Favourite Worry (2015)

[jtx]

Finally got around to listening to this album all the way through several times, and can now wholeheartedly recommend it, if you are looking for a solid album in the classic soul and blues traditions. This album came out 2 years ago, with a live album that followed. Would definitely like to hear more from this British group. Once you listen to Wanderlust, you'll find it locked in your head (in a good way).



Excerpt from :

Rating: Highly Recommended

Without an ounce of pretense or artifice, The Milk howls, screams, cries, and yells in voices ragged with pain and a lived life. In the begging of “save me, save me” on “No Interruptions,” you hear they know something about the blues. They also know how to make something sound clean and beautiful, especially in harmony as with shimmering aural walls of “Wanderlust” or the melancholic doubling on “Loneliness Has Eyes.” They haven’t forgotten that ‘60s soul includes the frayed belts of Janis Joplin and the soulful California harmonies of the Mamas & The Papas and The Beach Boys too; not everything honest came out of Memphis and Detroit. They aren’t all loose and undisciplined in their displays of vulnerability, as the vocal precision of lead vocalist Rick Nunn’s phrasing illustrates on “Darling What’s Wrong.” Nunn does so in a voice quivering with emotion, but always in the pocket and coloring with skill. Nunn (who also plays keys and guitar), along with drummer and keyboardist Mitch Ayling and lead guitarist Dan Legresley, have a special blues rock vocal blend as spotlighted on “Deliver Me,” a mid-tempo groove that approaches balladry and is as smooth as it is haunting. Bass guitarist Luke Ayling doesn’t sing, but his contribution is ever-present in its weight, and is irreducible...

Yes, there seems to be a million retro soul outfits these days, coming from such far away places as Italy and Japan, even New Zealand, but they aren’t the UK’s The Milk. In these four musicians’ efforts at being great students of an era that has been heavily mined, and is increasingly becoming a musical parody through clichéd and cheap imitation, they have managed to remember the most vital lessons from the albums of their Black American Music forbearers: no matter how influenced you are by the greats, to still be yourself too; to sing your truth and write your lyrical blues as honestly and starkly as you can; and, to leave everything you have to give as an artist, to leave all of it on the stage or the studio floor. On Favourite Worry, The Milk has earned nothing but exemplary marks on this report card.

Full review: https://www.soultracks.com/album-review ... rite-worry