Reviews

Artist: Rachel Unthank & The Winter Set
Album: Cruel Sister
Label: Rabble Rouser
Tracks: 13
Rating: ****
Contact:  www.rachelunthank.com

I first came across Rachel Unthank and her sister Becky performing as a duo on the Thursday at Cambridge last year. I recall their crystal voices and descripitive tones as they performed traditional songs with a North East bent.
Well a lot's happened in the North East since then. Sunderland have won the championship, whilst Rachel and Becky have formed a band, the Winterset. Becky has dropped back into the band, to help facilitate her university education and Rachel steps up as the focus.
Cruel Sister, therefore, is named after the traditional song that's included on this pretty fine debut album, rather than a Machevelian plot to get most of the credit..
The move to the band has proved to be an inspiration. The tight vocal work, often unaccompanied, tends to get you first. Tight, evocative and full of resonence it's delivered crisply with plenty of feeling. The addition of the instruments stops it being too samey, which I find can happen by the time you're two thirds of the way through a vocal only album.
The songs are mainly traditional, with the odd nod at the contemporary, including a pretty fine cover of Nick Drake's Riverman, that sees Becky stepping up to the mark to lead..
The Winterset, Belinda O'Hooley(piano) and Jackie Oats(viola) as well as Becky, help to craft some wonderful tunes in the album that, at times, the vocals spark off.
Cruel Sister is like Julio Arca at his best, it dances down the left field, cuts, scintilating, into the box rounding off with a sublime finish. It does the band and the North East proud.