Music Review: The Unthanks

The Unthanks

Here’s the Tender Coming

(RabbleRouser Music/EMI Records)

The latest Unthanks album suggests the onset of a harsh, bitter winter gusting from the UK on the sails of early 20th Century folk with an Irish tinge.

Traditional instrumentation supports the gallingly shrill voices of the Unthanks sisters, making for an excessively lithe album too superficial to accept with sincerity.

If the album is not depressing the listener with austere tales and breathy whines, it is evoking the naïve retrospections of a Disney princess’ sobbing croons into the moonlight. The beginning established a stale sound that dissolves into a lethargic amalgamation of a capella accompanied by sparse, muted instrumentation strung together for no apparent reason.

The closing title track is a trepidation-provoking nine minute ordeal that exposes a startling hidden track. That hidden gem presents an adventurous tempo that any leprechaun would gladly jig to. This unmatched, concealed song produces a half-empty pot of gold at the end of this monotonous rainbow of neutral grays.

Here’s the Tender Coming gives prominence to its pompous vocals and rarely veers away from its bland foundation to experiment with the group’s apparent plethora of capable players. Lifeless pianos, violins, and acoustic guitars ride shotgun on this outing. The band never revs the engine. Never sends you careening around some unexpected curve.

Though sparse flahes of decency abound, the album calls for a vigorous bout of tomato throwing at the band’s label for provisionally paralyzing the forthcoming of spring with this gloomy, disheartening release.