The Bairns

Submitted by the panel on 16 February 2013 - 10:03pm

Album selected from Mercury Music Prize 2008 shortlist

Cover:

Artist:

Rachel Unthank & The Winterset

album-ID:

a_42

Nationality:

Year:

2 007

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

Felton Lonnin*Lull 1: Newcastle Lullaby*Blue Bleezing Blind Drunk*I Wish, I Wish*Blue’s Gaen Oot O'the Fashion*Lull 2: My Lad’s a Canny Lad*Blackbird*Lull 3: A Minor Place*Sea Song*Whitehorn*Lull 4: Can’t Stop It Raining*My Donald*Ma Bonny Lad*Fareweel Regality*Newcastle Lullaby

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_17

Now-num:

Spotify-URL:

7eA5qsbrSfsf72MCBfgfcw

Grooveshark-URL:

The+Bairns/2780924

Short-title:

bairns

nominator-ID:

u_43

Meeting-date:

Wednesday, 14 January 2009

MusicBrainz-URL:

85318834-16e6-3ab9-bad7-e7e98dfc3327

Wikipedia-URL:

The_Bairns_(album)

Spotify-link-type:

album

Discogs-URL:

Rachel-Unthank-The-Winterset-The-Bairns/master/199044

Allmusic-URL:

the-bairns-mw0000795379

BBC-URL:

p39x

guest-list data

108

109

117

72

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

I see not me hinnies

7-12

2-6

I found it quite refreshing to hear sparse arrangements like these, that also made good use of the piano. My major reservation was with them overplaying the Northumbrian accent and dialect. If you bring in too much of that character you can't help but also drag in typical associations with the area, which feel at odds with the the sensitive and emotional angle they are also trying to pitch. Although the sound of Rachel's singing was a difficult hurdle to overcome, I did really like the harmonies, her sister's singing complementing the lead voice nicely.

It's a long album and could have really done with some earnest sifting, but the better tracks I found touching and pleasantly musical, and without it ever drifting too far into typical hey-nonny-nonny folk nonsense. Really quite pleasantly different.
70

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

Get in there Franny.

2-4-14

A new experience for me, not having anything like this in my collection - and a pleasurable one. I found the vocals and harmonies beautiful and very listenable. The subject matters of the songs are strange and hard to identify with, but the melodies make it a great listen, fully justifying its place in the mercury nominations.
64

reviewed by

Richard Norbury

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review-form data

guest-list data