With their sophomore effort, THE BAIRNS, Mercury Prize nominees Rachel Unthank & the Winterset deliver an intense, alternately brooding and joyous collection of folk music that's both contemporary and steeped in Celtic tradition. Vocalist/cellist Rachel shares the lead singing duties with her sister Becky, which allows the duo to produce a sound that's by turns as angry as Sinead O'Connor and as smoky as Norah Jones. Accompanied by Irish fiddler Niopha Keegan and the eclectic piano work of Belinda O'Hooley, the group matches ancient-sounding songs about abuse, drinking, and leaving with a Brit pop-esque sense of space and grandeur.

This second album from Rachel Unthank & the Winterset, following the group's highly praised debut, is a record that demands several plays to understand. It starts off in uncompromising fashion, as the first verse of "Felton Lonnin" is in Northumbrian dialect so deep as to be virtually incomprehensible to an outsider (and Unthank's wavering vocal isn't exactly embracing). But the song opens up, and it sets the tone well for the rest of the disc. It's very much a folk record -- most of the songs are traditional -- but it takes chances. "Blue's Gaen Oot o'the Fashion" is a patchwork of snippets taken from several different songs, while "Lull III: A Minor Place" simply uses the chorus from Bonnie Prince Billy's song of the same name. There are some contemporary folk songs, one from bandmember Belinda O'Hooley, but the most ambitious track has to be a cover of Robert Wyatt's "Sea Song." Always a very personal piece, it's one that doesn't lend itself easily to interpretation, especially by an acoustic group, but Becky Unthank does an excellent job on the vocal, while the arrangement, neatly subdued, is sympathetic and true to the feel of the original. It's rare to hear a folk group where piano stands as the central instrument (the fiddle often feels like it's there in a supporting role), but they make it work, and when the sisters harmonize in their singing, it can be quite sublime. Time will shake off the hype that's attended them over the last couple of years, but this is a band with real spark and invention. ~ Chris Nickson