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The Unthanks: Last

Graeme Thomson, Uncut, April 2011

The Northumbrian five-piece shatter folk's borders, as this expansive yet austere fourth proves.

THE UNTHANKS SEEM to regard folk music the same way Miles Davis regarded jazz: as a launchpad for exploring the wider possibilities. Their fourth album, Last, certainly proves the Northumbrian quintet have little in common with the more accessible strand of roots music currently popularised by the corporation of Mumfords, Marling & co.

Total word count of piece: 780

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