Track Listing

1. Felton Lonnin
2. Lull I
3. Blue Bleezing Blind Drunk
4. I Wish
5. Blue's Gaen Oot O'the Fashion
6. Lull II (My Lad's A Canny Lad)
7. Blackbird
8. Lull III (A Minor Place)
9. Sea Song
10. Whitethorn
11. Lull IV (Can't Stop It Raining)
12. My Donald
13. Ma Bonny Lad
14. Fareweel Regality
15. Newcastle Lullaby

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #415 in Music
• Released on: 2007-08-20
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
Second album, following 2005's 'Cruel Sister', from cult Northumbrian all-female folk quartet, which found itself in many critics' lists as one of the best albums of 2007 and is nominated for the 2008 Mercury Prize. Bewitching, haunting and melancholy, the album absorbs and transcends the folk idiom, its mostly beatless songs buoyed and given an almost classical beauty by the plangent strings of the Northern Sinfonia.

Customer Reviews

..... above and beyond.......
To tell the truth there is very little I can add that hasn't already been said by those reviewers more knowledgeable and eloquent. Most here obviously feel the same way I do about this music Still there is something about "The Bairns" that creates a need to share my delight.

I discovered this album as part of my annual buying of the "Mercury Prize shortlist". Suffice to say all of the others have already faded away into the background and pall in comparison to this exquisite piece of work.

I remember the Guardian blabbing on about The Winterset when this was released but did the shameful "folk: I don't really do folk" thing and ignored it. My embarrassment at that earlier narrowness of vision is luckily smothered by my sheer joy of finally discovering what I was missing.

Let me start by saying that I have never heard anything like this before. This is something above and beyond the term "music". It's an experience that honestly transcends everything I have heard and loved in the past. As you immerse yourself in this album moments of devastating, desperate beauty emerge, entangling and drawing you further into the overriding hypnotic framework and gently rhythmic flow that flawlessly holds this exceptional work together.
This is a collection of tunes that will move you deeply, sometimes to tears, sometimes to laughter. I recently saw them live (which mere words cannot recommend strongly enough but it is, incredibly, even better live) and was somewhat relieved and amused to see other people nearby wiping away discreetly shed tears.
It was "Blackbird" and "Sea song" that initially hooked me but it was "Felton Lonnin", "Blue's Gaen Oot O'the Fashion" and especially "I Wish" that reeled me in. Now I'm hopelessly and wonderfully under the spell of this towering achievement.
Do they actually know how good this album is? Are they aware what they've created? Can they possibly produce something this perfect again? I certainly hope so because I just can't stop listening to this. Months later and all other music is still strangely irrelevant.

I know little about music but I think it's safe to say what's so very special about "The Bairns" is the overall structure and the arrangements. All the elements that make up each track work so perfectly together and something that initially seems relatively simplistic reveals layer upon layer of depth both audible and emotional.
Like an earlier reviewer I'm usually reaching for the hankies before "Fareweel Regality" has finished and I'm at a total loss to explain why.

Wonderful!
I'd eyed this CD up a few times until I finally got round to listening to some samples on the band's MySpace page, after which I went out and purchased the album. Firstly, this isn't a CD which rewards instantly if you do the quick flick throught the tracks that so many of us do when we get a pile of new discs, and its much better for it. Take the time to sit and listen to this properly and by half way through the first track you won't be able to switch it off until the last notes have played. This is folk at its absolute very best, performed in imaginative arrangements and covering the full gamut of life as only folk music can really do. It is nice too to see a Robert Wyatt song appearing on this CD as evidence that Unthank is interested not only in exploring traditional folk tales and tunes but also in extending the folk repertoire to include the best of new(ish) songwriting. Don't hesitate to buy this. It is wonderful.

My eyes have been opened to folk
I am not a folk officianado or a big fan of the genre. Nevertheless, a friend persuaded me to purchase this album as he proclaimed that the strength of the performances, songs etc crossed all boundaries. High praise... and, for once, not ill-founded.
In fact, I have become so attached to this CD that I may be forced to rethink my albums of the year. And yes, this could well be my number one for 2007.
The simple fact of the matter is that 'The Bairns' has a truly timeless quality. It is wonderfully arranged and the piano playing and vocal harmonies, in particular, incredibly creative.
Undoubtedly one of the most haunting, yet uplifting, CDs in my pretty extensive collection. Far better than Polly Harvey's new record, which actually treads a not too dissimilar path.
All in all, anyone who loves passionate female performers - from Kate Bush, Joanne Newsom etc to Bats For Lashes - will love this album.
I'm not ready to purchase a wooly jumper or grow a beard yet, and thankfully this traditional, but very fresh sounding, album doesn't make me feel alienated for not being of that ilk.
The northumbrian lasses have done good.