Release Date 15th September
The Mercury nominated 2007 album The Bairns was the only British folk album both in the the Guardian and Uncut's best albums of the decade. If there is only one this next decade, it could be Last. Without doubt the most confident and important Unthanks album to date, Last was made predominantly at the snowed-under Northumberland farmhouse that is home of Rachel and Adrian. Having made the highly successful Here's the Tender Coming in a studio, the return to home recording might have signalled a move back to the intimacy of their earlier work, but in practice, Last takes on the epic hallmarks of a masterpiece, in terms of the scale and atmosphere of the setting. This in part is down to the unlikely locations the Unthanks chose to gamble on. Having written last during a soundcheck at Snape Maltings, a beautiful Victorian wooden maltings converted into a concert hall, Mcnally couldn't resist but go back and record it there on the piano and acoustics he had fallen in love with. The piano for some of the other tracks was done there, and then the Unthanks discovered a local Northumberland village hall in which they recorded the strings, along with the haunting group vocals on the opening track 'gan to the kye'.