Last (Unthanks album)
Encyclopedia
Last, the fourth album by English folk
group The Unthanks, was released on 14 March 2011. It reached number 40 in the UK albums chart
and was well received by the critics.
, said that "Proving once again that sad songs are very often the best, their fourth album is brimming with material that is as haunting as it is beautiful."
Robin Denselow, for The Guardian
, described it as "a bold and highly original set". Thomas H Green of The Daily Telegraph
said it was "string-laden and luscious but also delicate, wistful and melancholy".
Writing in NME
, Anthony Thornton
said that the album "proves the mix of Rachel and Becky’s voices to be one of the true wonders of 21st-century music".
As well as traditional material, the album included a song written by band member Adrian McNally ("Last"), and versions of songs by Jon Redfern ("Give Away Your Heart"), Tom Waits
and Kathleen Brennan
("No One Knows I'm Gone"), King Crimson
("Starless
") and Alex Glasgow
("Close the Coalhouse Door").
Additional musicians
Folk music of England
Folk music of England refers to various types of traditionally based music, often contrasted with courtly, classical and later commercial music, for which evidence exists from the later medieval period. It has been preserved and transmitted orally, through print and later through recordings...
group The Unthanks, was released on 14 March 2011. It reached number 40 in the UK albums chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
and was well received by the critics.
Reception
Sid Smith, for BBC MusicBBC Music
BBC Music is a team working in the department of Audio and Music Interactive at the BBC. Responsible for the BBC Music website - the portal site to music content across the BBC website....
, said that "Proving once again that sad songs are very often the best, their fourth album is brimming with material that is as haunting as it is beautiful."
Robin Denselow, for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, described it as "a bold and highly original set". Thomas H Green of The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
said it was "string-laden and luscious but also delicate, wistful and melancholy".
Writing in NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, Anthony Thornton
Anthony Thornton (writer)
Anthony Thornton is the Group Digital Editor of IPC Inspire Men & Music. From 1998-2003 he successfully edited NME.COM, it became Europe's most visited music news website under his editorship. During this time he twice won the Online Editor Of The Year at the British Society Of Magazine Editors...
said that the album "proves the mix of Rachel and Becky’s voices to be one of the true wonders of 21st-century music".
As well as traditional material, the album included a song written by band member Adrian McNally ("Last"), and versions of songs by Jon Redfern ("Give Away Your Heart"), Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
and Kathleen Brennan
Kathleen Brennan
Kathleen Brennan is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and artist. She was born in Johnsburg, Illinois, as noted by her husband and musical collaborator Tom Waits, in the song of the same name. Brennan and Waits met in 1980 during the filming of the Francis Ford Coppola film One from...
("No One Knows I'm Gone"), King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
("Starless
Starless
"Starless" is a piece by British progressive rock band King Crimson. It was featured on the Red album in 1974.The lyrics and melody for "Starless" were written by John Wetton. He originally intended the song to be the title track of the group's previous album Starless and Bible Black...
") and Alex Glasgow
Alex Glasgow
Alex Glasgow was a singer/songwriter from Low Fell, Gateshead, England. He was educated at Gateshead Grammar School where he founded the Caprians, a choir that, 55 years on and still counting, is thriving. He graduated in German at the University of Leeds...
("Close the Coalhouse Door").
Track listing
- "Gan to the Kye" (Traditional, arranged by The Unthanks)
- "The Gallowgate Lad" (Lyrics: Joe Wilson. Music: Traditional (Tune: Sally Grey), arranged by The Unthanks)
- "Queen of Hearts" (Traditional, arranged by The Unthanks)
- "Last" (Adrian McNally)
- "Give Away Your Heart" (Jon Redfern)
- "No One Knows I'm Gone" (Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan)
- "My Laddie Sits Ower Late up" (Traditional, arranged by The Unthanks)
- "Canny Hobbie Elliot" (Traditional, arranged by The Unthanks)
- "Starless" (Cross/FrippRobert FrippRobert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
/Whitton/Palmer-James) - "Close the Coalhouse Door" (Alex Glasgow)
- "Last" (reprise)
Personnel
The Unthanks- Rachel Unthank – voice, kalimba
- Becky Unthank – voice
- Niopha Keegan – violin, voice
- Adrian McNally – piano, dulcitoneDulcitoneA dulcitone is a keyboard instrument in which sound is produced by a range of tuning forks, which vibrate when struck by felt-covered hammers activated by the keyboard....
, voice, drums - Chris Price – bass, acoustic and electric guitar, ukulele
Additional musicians
- Ros Stephen – violin
- Becca Spencer – viola
- Jo Silverston – cello
- Lizzie Jones – trumpet
- Dean Ravera – double bass
- Alex Neilson – drums
- Julian Sutton – melodeon