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Simon Holland, for [[Folk Radio UK]], said: "With two tracks at over 10 minutes, this was never going to be a short album, but... [it] does what great albums do, takes you on a journey, offers surprises, but gives you rewards on route, satisfying head and heart, with some moments of pure emotional static charge that make the hairs on the neck stand proud."<ref name="Holland">{{cite news | url=http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2015/02/the-unthanks-mount-the-air/ | title=The Unthanks – Mount the Air | work=[[Folk Radio UK]] | date=1 February 2015 | accessdate=4 April 2015 | author=Simon Holland}}</ref> Describing the album as "a floating, swirling, blend of folk, indie-rock, and jazz", Russ Coffey for ''[[The Arts Desk]]'' said: "Adrian McNally's piano motifs... bring a Wyatt-like warmth. Similarly, Tom Arthur's free-form trumpet lines add a lovely sense of yearning... Mount The Air is, above all, Adrian McNally’s album and shines brightest where his arrangements are at their most ambitious. The title track is masterful: 10 minutes of a grieving Dorset folk song set against Arthur's laconic jazz horn licks".<ref name="Coffey">{{cite news | url=http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/cd-unthanks-mount-air | title=CD: The Unthanks - Mount The Air | work=[[The Arts Desk]] | date=9 February 2015 | accessdate=4 April 2015 | author=Russ Coffey}}</ref>
Simon Holland, for [[Folk Radio UK]], said: "With two tracks at over 10 minutes, this was never going to be a short album, but... [it] does what great albums do, takes you on a journey, offers surprises, but gives you rewards on route, satisfying head and heart, with some moments of pure emotional static charge that make the hairs on the neck stand proud."<ref name="Holland">{{cite news | url=http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2015/02/the-unthanks-mount-the-air/ | title=The Unthanks – Mount the Air | work=[[Folk Radio UK]] | date=1 February 2015 | accessdate=4 April 2015 | author=Simon Holland}}</ref> Describing the album as "a floating, swirling, blend of folk, indie-rock, and jazz", Russ Coffey for ''[[The Arts Desk]]'' said: "Adrian McNally's piano motifs... bring a Wyatt-like warmth. Similarly, Tom Arthur's free-form trumpet lines add a lovely sense of yearning... Mount The Air is, above all, Adrian McNally’s album and shines brightest where his arrangements are at their most ambitious. The title track is masterful: 10 minutes of a grieving Dorset folk song set against Arthur's laconic jazz horn licks".<ref name="Coffey">{{cite news | url=http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/cd-unthanks-mount-air | title=CD: The Unthanks - Mount The Air | work=[[The Arts Desk]] | date=9 February 2015 | accessdate=4 April 2015 | author=Russ Coffey}}</ref>
Aaron Lavery, reviewing the album for ''[[Drowned in Sound]] said: "The Unthanks have never been gentle background music as some might expect, as they’re always drawn to the darker stories that they can dig up. On Mount The Air, those stories are matched by some sumptuous, confident music, and they sound all the better for it."<ref name="Lavery">{{cite web | url=http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18620/reviews/4148665 | title=The Unthanks: Mount the Air | work=[[Drowned in Sound]] | date=3 February 2015 | accessdate=4 April 2015 | author=Aaron Lavery}}</ref>


However, ''[[The Observer]]'''s Neil Spencer bucked the trend, giving the album three stars, and criticising the "ambitious but lumbering orchestration... Two instrumentals eschew the group’s strength; more voices please".<ref name="Spencer">{{cite news | url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/08/the-unthanks-mount-the-air-review-magpie-hawthorn-rachel-becky | title=The Unthanks: Mount the Air review – more voices please | work=[[The Observer]] | date=8 February 2015 | accessdate=4 April 2015 | author=Neil Spencer}}</ref>
However, ''[[The Observer]]'''s Neil Spencer bucked the trend, giving the album three stars, and criticising the "ambitious but lumbering orchestration... Two instrumentals eschew the group’s strength; more voices please".<ref name="Spencer">{{cite news | url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/08/the-unthanks-mount-the-air-review-magpie-hawthorn-rachel-becky | title=The Unthanks: Mount the Air review – more voices please | work=[[The Observer]] | date=8 February 2015 | accessdate=4 April 2015 | author=Neil Spencer}}</ref>

Revision as of 10:50, 4 April 2015

Untitled

Mount the Air, the eight album by English folk group The Unthanks, was released on 9 February 2015. It received five-starred reviews in The Daily Telegraph and The Irish Times and four-starred reviews in The Financial Times and The Guardian.

The title track was issued as a single on 8 December 2014.[1] "Flutter", another track from the album, was released as a single on 16 February 2015.

Reception

Mount the Air received a five-starred review in The Daily Telegraph. Reviewer Helen Brown described the album as "a slow, swirling affair that mixes original material with traditional tales. Underpinned by McNally’s cool, fluid piano it’s simultaneously ancient and fresh." [2]

Joe Breen, writing in The Irish Times, also gave the album five stars, describing The Unthanks' Mount The Air as "their most ambitious work" and saying that it "places them in the same league as the likes of The Gloaming and the Punch Brothers".[3]

In a four-starred review for The Financial Times, David Honigmann said: "Once a bleak Northumbrian chamber folk outfit, the Unthanks have reinvented themselves on a symphonic scale, as witness the 10-minute title track, ushered in on harps and with an orchestration that recalls Gil Evans’s work for Miles Davis."[4] Robin Denselow, in a four-starred review for The Guardian, said: "This is a return to the gentle melancholia of Last, and while there are fine vocals from the Unthank sisters, the dominant figure is Rachel’s husband, Adrian McNally, who plays keyboards and percussion, and produced and wrote much of the music... It’s a lush, often exquisite set".[5] Teddy Jamieson, writing in the Sunday Herald, said: "The Unthanks return with an album that takes the folk tradition the sisters grew up on and sails it into wilder waters... Folk's storytelling tradition is still very much at the heart of this album. But what thrills here is the sense of scale at play in the music, the unrushed, easeful way the musicians stretch into songs, let them linger without ever overstaying their welcome. That and the earthy humanity of the sisters' voices."[6]

In a four-starred review, Chris White, for musicOMH, said that Mount the Air "continues The Unthanks’ journey away from the traditional north-east folk of their earlier albums towards a style that’s uniquely their own. It’s hard to think of another group anywhere who are creating music quite like this; still grounded in the sounds and spirit of their native region yet compositionally on a different planet to the pub back room strums and ceilidh jigs knocked out by most of their contemporaries."[7] Also giving the album four stars, Thomas Ingham, writing for The Skinny, praised "the swelling and soaring arrangements of Adrian McNally, who manages to merge folk with the unease and medieval European gloom of recent records like Last Ex and the infamous In the Aeroplane Over the Sea."[8]

Simon Holland, for Folk Radio UK, said: "With two tracks at over 10 minutes, this was never going to be a short album, but... [it] does what great albums do, takes you on a journey, offers surprises, but gives you rewards on route, satisfying head and heart, with some moments of pure emotional static charge that make the hairs on the neck stand proud."[9] Describing the album as "a floating, swirling, blend of folk, indie-rock, and jazz", Russ Coffey for The Arts Desk said: "Adrian McNally's piano motifs... bring a Wyatt-like warmth. Similarly, Tom Arthur's free-form trumpet lines add a lovely sense of yearning... Mount The Air is, above all, Adrian McNally’s album and shines brightest where his arrangements are at their most ambitious. The title track is masterful: 10 minutes of a grieving Dorset folk song set against Arthur's laconic jazz horn licks".[10] Aaron Lavery, reviewing the album for Drowned in Sound said: "The Unthanks have never been gentle background music as some might expect, as they’re always drawn to the darker stories that they can dig up. On Mount The Air, those stories are matched by some sumptuous, confident music, and they sound all the better for it."[11]

However, The Observer's Neil Spencer bucked the trend, giving the album three stars, and criticising the "ambitious but lumbering orchestration... Two instrumentals eschew the group’s strength; more voices please".[12]

Track listing

  1. Mount The Air (music by Adrian McNally; first verse based on "I'll Mount the Air on Swallows' Wings"; other words Adrian McNally/Becky Unthank) 10:34
  2. Madam (Traditional, arranged by Adrian McNally) 4:54
  3. Died For Love (Traditional, arranged by Adrian McNally) 3:48
  4. Flutter (words by Becky Unthank; music Becky Unthank/Adrian McNally) 3:38
  5. Magpie (Dave Dodds) 5:03
  6. Foundling (Adrian McNally) 10:48
  7. Last Lullaby (contains "Golden Slumbers" (traditional); additional words by Rachel Unthank; music traditional) 5:55
  8. Hawthorn (Charles Causley/ Becky Unthank/ Adrian McNally) 4:22
  9. For Dad (Niopha Keegan) 4:40
  10. The Poor Stranger (Traditional, arranged by Adrian McNally/ Rachel Unthank) 4:01
  11. Waiting (Chris Price/Adrian McNally) 3:00

Personnel

The Unthanks
  • Rachel Unthank – voice
  • Becky Unthank – voice
  • Adrian McNally – piano, voice, celeste, kalimba, Fender Rhodes, chord organ, glockenspiel, Indian harmonium, percussion
  • Niopha Keegan – quartet violin, solo fiddle, voice
  • Chris Price – electric bass, guitar, piano tinkles on "Last Lullaby"
Additional musicians
  • Lizzie Jones – trumpet, flugelhorn
  • Martin Douglas – drums, percussion
  • Dan Rogers – double bass
  • Tom Arthurs – trumpet on "Mount the Air"
  • Kathleen Ord – violin
  • James Boyle – violin
  • Gabriel Wait – cello
  • Nick Byrne – cello
  • Eilidh Gillespie – flute
  • Esther Swift – harp

References

  1. ^ Alex Gallacher (11 November 2014). "The Unthanks – New Album & Video: Mount The Air". Folk Radio UK. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  2. ^ Helen Brown (7 February 2015). "Mount the Air, The Unthanks, review: 'a slow, swirling affair'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  3. ^ Joe Breen (26 February 2015). "The Unthanks: Mount The Air Album Review". The Irish Times. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  4. ^ David Honigmann (6 February 2015). "The Unthanks: Mount The Air — review". The Financial Times. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  5. ^ Robin Denselow (5 February 2015). "The Unthanks: Mount the Air review – exquisitely melancholic folk". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  6. ^ Teddy Jamieson (8 February 2015). "The Unthanks: Mount The Air (Rabble Rouser)". Sunday Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  7. ^ Chris White (6 February 2015). "The Unthanks – Mount The Air". musicOMH. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  8. ^ Thomas Ingham (9 February 2015). "The Unthanks – Mount The Air". The Skinny. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  9. ^ Simon Holland (1 February 2015). "The Unthanks – Mount the Air". Folk Radio UK. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  10. ^ Russ Coffey (9 February 2015). "CD: The Unthanks - Mount The Air". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  11. ^ Aaron Lavery (3 February 2015). "The Unthanks: Mount the Air". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  12. ^ Neil Spencer (8 February 2015). "The Unthanks: Mount the Air review – more voices please". The Observer. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
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