ALBUM REVIEWS : THE UNTHANKS - HERE'S THE TENDER COMING

Some things in life are pretty hard to defend. We’re not talking about sending some troops to Afghanistan, but we’re trying to defend a classical folkalbum.
Mind you, the band can survive without my help as it seems the press (especially the British one, who else?) decided that the third album by The Unthanks is the masterpiece everyone should buy. Over here it’s quite different, even very different.
In 2008 they were working under the name of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, and it almost got them the winning Mercury Prize with the album ‘The bairns’.
The band changed the concept as there’s not only Rachel Unthank, there’s a Becky Unthank as well and with the addition of some extra members, they became The Unthanks.
Whatever you might read the strongness comes from the voices and the approach of their music : it’s traditional folk done in a minimalistic way enriched with some clever backgroundnoises (from handclap to harpstrings).
The weaker thing is that it’s all a bit too sweet, you realise you’re listening to perfect melodic folkpop but you also realise you miss something…and after one hour, it’s just too much.
If someone tells you The Unthanks are good, then they’re right, but give’em a record by Kitty, Daisy and Lewis as well.