Last
The Unthanks, previously known as Rachel Unthank & The Winterset, are a folk group from Northumberland, England. Their music creates an unusually rich take on British folk music that turns traditional and modern songs from a variety of unexpected writers into a playground for acoustic-based experimentalism. Tom Waits’ and Kathleen Brennan’s “No One Knows I’m Gone” is given a clear, straight-forward approach, while King Crimson’s “Starless” is turned into a majestic parlor tune. Jon Redfern’s “Give Away Your Heart” features pure voices doubled and harmonized while a simple piano traces in the background. The clear mists breaking over the traditional “My Laddie Sits Ower Late Up” transcends generations. Rachel Unthanks and her sister Becky are such lovely singers that there really isn’t anything they can’t commit to for great effect. “Canny Hobby Elliott,” the seven-minute “Close the Coalhouse Door,” and “Gan to the Kye” are songs true to tradition and filled with ageless spirits.
Two sisters from the north of England put their own spin on tradtional British folk.
The second album from the Unthanks (third if you include the early effort they recorded with a different lineup as Rachel Unthank & the Winterset), Last is a striking fusion of British folk music with austere, arty pop, featuring adventurous arrangements and dynamics that recall acts like Tindersticks, Sufjan Stevens, and American Music Club.
This album of gentle melancholia matches their most elaborate instrumental arrangements to date, writes <strong>Robin Denselow</strong>