It’s bleak in the mid-winter.
Into the increasingly crowded market for folk renditions of wintery themed songs and reworked and reimagined carols comes ‘In Winter‘ the latest release from The Unthanks. It, quite cannily, is available as a gatefold packaged double LP, making it the perfect option for a Christmas gift to one’s favourite folk vinyl junkie – it is also available on CD and as a download, naturally. ‘In Winter‘ runs as a continuous sound experience, with songs and atmospheric instrumentals blending from the one into the next with captured sounds adding a further dimension. The Unthanks are quite an audio-visual savvy band and on several of the linking pieces it’s easy to imagine stage lighting effects and back-projected visuals accompanying the music when they take the album out on a December tour for that ever-expanding “I want some Christmas but I don’t really want to go to church” market.
The music is mostly drawn from outside the band – and although there are a few new songs such as ‘Nurse Emmanuel‘ and ‘Dear Companions‘ the majority are rearrangements of traditional songs, or borrowed from other singers, including the Unthank sisters’ father George Unthank (‘Tar Barrel In Dale‘). The rearrangements – particularly on the instrumentals – can be quite radical: ‘O Come All Ye Faithful‘ is ushered in as an almost mournful piano piece and even when the Unthanks’ voices join in it is far more subdued than the usual hearty presentation. Less familiar carols such as ‘Carol Of The Birds‘ and ‘Carol Of The Beasts‘ add a contrast in styles – the first is as soft as the Catalan lullaby it came from whilst the 17th century ‘Carol of the Beasts‘ can’t decide between psychedelic rock and jazz-rock: both paths offer a little more wild abandon than is usually associated with The Unthanks.
We’re safely back in the eerie dark of traditional song – safe Unthanks territory – with ‘Coventry Carol‘ where the combination of drone and Becky and Rachel Unthanks’ voices shivers like a Winter’s ghost story as Herod orders the Massacre of the Innocents. The Becky Unthank / Ainslie Henderson co-write ‘River River‘ drifts like a dream of water, appropriately the chill of the arrangement bringing slow thaws to mind. ‘O Holy Night‘ provides a melody for the restrained political diagnoses of ‘Nurse Emmanuel‘ a co-write between poet Vanessa Lampert and Adrian McNally – it takes us right back into the dark COVID winters and weekly applause for those literally risking their lives to keep the NHS going.
Far more than just a set of jolly carols – ‘In Winter‘ is a journey through different wintry moods. There is joy, and there’s plenty of unsettling chill. ‘The Snow It Melts The Soonest‘ marks male arrogance as hard as any other version, chilling in a different way to the biting grimness of endless wind and snow. An album far better enjoyed as a single listen rather than just dipping in and out, and whilst perhaps not the record you’ll be playing whilst decorating the tree or wrapping presents it’d certainly suit quieter and more reflective and contemplative moments.
