Last (Unthanks album)
| Last | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by The Unthanks | ||||
| Released | 14 March 2011 (UK) | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Length | 49:38 | |||
| Label | UK: Rabble Rouser/ EMI Records (EMI 095 9942); Australia: Fuse Australia (FMG101); Europe and North America: Rough Trade Records (RGTE 617) | |||
| Producer | Adrian McNally | |||
| The Unthanks chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Singles from Last | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Sunday Express |  |
| AllMusic |  |
| The Daily Telegraph | |
| The Guardian | |
| Record Collector | |
| NME |   |
| PopMatters | |
| Pitchfork |  |
Last, the fourth album by English folk group the Unthanks, was released on 14 March 2011. It reached number 40 in the UK Albums Chart and was well received by the critics, receiving a five-starred review in the Sunday Express and four-starred reviews in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.
As well as traditional material, the album included a song written by band member Adrian McNally ("Last"), and versions of songs by Jon Redfern ("Give Away Your Heart"), Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan ("No One Knows I'm Gone"), King Crimson ("Starless") and Alex Glasgow ("Close the Coalhouse Door"). "Last" was also issued as a single, edited for radio play; this was released on 13 June 2011.
Sid Smith, for BBC Music, said that "Proving once again that sad songs are very often the best, their fourth album is brimming with material that is as haunting as it is beautiful." In a five-starred review for the Sunday Express, Martin Townsend proclaimed it "a gorgeously unhurried, utterly mesmerising masterpiece".
Mark Deming, in a four-starred review for AllMusic, described Last as "a striking fusion of British folk music with austere, arty pop, featuring adventurous arrangements and dynamics that recall acts like Tindersticks, Sufjan Stevens, and American Music Club". In a four-starred review for The Guardian, Robin Denselow described it as "a bold and highly original set". Thomas H Green of The Daily Telegraph also gave the album four stars and said it was "string-laden and luscious but also delicate, wistful and melancholy".
Josh Modell of Spin magazine said that on the album the Unthank sisters "sing gorgeously doleful tales inspired by (and frequently taken from) Old English history, rendered in crisp, warm recordings". David Bevan, reviewing the album for Pitchfork, said of Rachel and Becky Unthank's voices: "The revolving harmonies of 'Canny Hobbie Elliot' are emblematic of how well they can work together. Though it's one of the few songs on Last that isn't sad and bleak, their voices come together just so, and the result is mystifying and devastating." Writing in NME, Anthony Thornton said that the album "proves the mix of Rachel and Becky’s voices to be one of the true wonders of 21st-century music".
...
Wikipedia