The Milk Return with ‘Borderlands’ — Their Most Ambitious Album to Date

On 19 September, WLS Records will release The Milk’s sophisticated new album Borderlands, which features outstanding songwriting, deftly served by extraordinary musicianship, mixed with ambitious arrangements and world-class production.

A lovingly crafted sonic memoir, it fuses The Milk’s love of ‘60s soul with elements of modern funk and jazz, choral harmonies reminiscent of Kamasi Washington and Michael Kiwanuka, augmented with sweeping horns, lush strings, and in-the-pocket grooves.

Whether it’s the yearning of ‘I Need Your Love’, ‘Destiny Calling’s uptempo exploration of nostalgia, the harmonic inspiration of Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson on ‘Pangs Of Love’ – which sounds like Doves at their most soulful (if they had emerged from the Essex heartlands) – the dramatic rhythmic bounce of ‘The Middle’, the jazz references to Coltrane and Miles Davis in ‘Wanted Man’, the restlessness and dream-like sonics of the title track, or the groove-laden defiance of ‘Loaded Dice’, each acts as a mini soundtrack to scenes in the band’s very own soulful movie.

There’s a tenderness throughout the album none more so than on the cathartic ‘A Time To Let Go’, a song about loss and the absence of someone and how their presence still echoes through what you do. This sensitivity is also present on album closer ‘I Saved My Best For You’, which builds from an intimate guitar and vocal into a crescendo, like the final moment from the golden age of film.

All of these dazzling songs coalesce to make Borderlands a breathtakingly stunning album. One whose richness constantly rewards the listener with infectious, yet subtle grooves, all topped off with singer and keyboardist Rick Nunn’s vocal prowess which has been compared to Steve Winwood, channelling the soulful spirit of icons like Marvin Gaye and Bill Withers, infusing each lyric with heartfelt authenticity.

In a world of rapid consumption and digital overload, Borderlands asks you to stop, to feel, remember, reflect. To reconnect with something real.

The Milk comprises lifelong friends Rick Nunn (vocal, keys), Mitch Ayling (drums), Luke Ayling (bass), and Dan Le Gresley (guitar). With a shared devotion, passion, and obsession for music, since their school days they have been crafting elegant and timeless soul-inspired albums. Borderlands is the greatest realisation yet of their collective aspiration to create something uniquely their own.

Produced by drummer Mitch Ayling, Borderlands was recorded at Woods Lodge Studio with the band playing every track live in the room together. Recorded earlier this year, The Milk were joined were joined by the Soul Choir and a variety of other musicians who added trumpet, saxophone, flute, viola and violin.

The album was mastered on vintage analogue equipment by Lewis Durham at Durham Sound Studios.

Tracklisting:

1. I Need Your Love
2. Destiny Calling
3. A Time To Let Go
4. Pangs Of Love
5. Morning Light
6. The Middle
7. Borderlands
8. Wanted Man
9. Loaded Dice
10. I Saved My Best For You

Tour dates:
4 September The Apex, Bury St. Edmunds
19 September 229, London
20 September Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham-by-Sea
26 September Band On The Wall, Manchester
27 September Subscription Rooms, Stroud
18 October The Old Town Hall, Hemel Hempstead *Acoustic show