The Unthanks - Lines

The Guardian 80

(Rabble Rouser)

One can only admire how the Tyneside group have evolved from their English folk roots to become a cultural phenomenon, charting Northumbrian history from navy press gangs to shipbuilding glory and destitution. Along the way, they have embraced songs by Robert Wyatt and Molly Drake, and added a keen strain of chamber folk to the tender vocal harmonies of Unthank sisters Rachel and Becky. National treasures? Absolutely.

Lines is a trilogy of short albums (available singly or as a set) that maintain their ambition, respectively focused on the poems of Emily Brontë, those of first world war writers, and a Maxine Peake drama celebrating Hull fishworker and campaigner Lillian Bilocca.