The Unthanks – ‘The Unthanks In Winter’ – “one to savour in a warm place”

RABBLEROUSER MUSIC 29^th November 2024

Every band should do a Christmas album but The Unthanks aren’t every band. With their individual take on things, rooted in folk but roaming freely into other forms, they have made a WINTER album. Of course there are carols but they are part of the whole picture and it feels they are there as part of a picture of community in winter; of a communal celebration of the turning of the year, perhaps summed up in the choral ‘Dear Companions’ that closes the set. Strangely, this is the atypical piece, with a larger choral sound and warm sentiments that are at odds with the sparse beauty of the rest. In a seventy-minute collection, it’s easy to forgive.

Elsewhere, the arrangements are exquisitely beautiful and measured, making the set one to savour in a warm place. Whether the delicate and immaculate solo piano of Adrian McNally or the poppy bass on ‘O Tannenbaum’ (an attempt to do an Unthanks ‘Pet Sounds’), each piece is unmistakeably the Unthanks. Rachel & Becky’s Tyneside voices are special – breathy, personal, yet in service to the song but they are not the only parts of the band, with instrumentals included as well as other contributors like Niopha Keegan on fiddle and vocals, Chris Price on guitar and even a vibraphone (on ‘Holly and the Ivy’) and a clarinet.

Songs are performed with serious intent and ‘O Christmas Tree’ is a long way from a drunken carol-singing chant. “Oh, should we curse the winter” ask the women. The answer is no and the evidence is the collection. ‘Gower Wassail’ features drums that could have come from a medieval processional dance. ‘Come All Ye Faithful’ is picked out simply on piano with drone before gentle, breathy choral vocals ensure we stay in the thoughtful space. Lovely obscure carols of the birds and of the beasts add variety. ‘Bleary Winter’ has history behind it, recording the Enclosures from 1600 onwards and the theft of land use from common people. Elsewhere, expectations are detourned and ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ is a lovely vibraphone instrumental instead of a boozy shoutalong.

‘Nurse Emmanuel’ allows Adrian to sing (he co-wrote it), tying the old tune (‘O Holy Night’) to the new words. The highlights are too many to list (I could list nearly every song) but my personal favourite is ‘Tar Barrel’, a song by the women’s father, delivered acapella. It sounds ancient and hymns the fire processions of Allendale that feel as if embedded in far history.

The whole is limpidly beautiful, moving and bears listening to repeatedly, such is the simplicity and space in the sound. It is exactly what I expected from The Unthanks but still full of their usual surprises. Always gorgeous and pure-sounding but never taking a song head-on without excavating for its emotional heart.

Two Unthanks album reviews: