Diversion Vol. 1 The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons, The Unthanks, Rabblerouser Music/Rough Trade Winter 2011

This year has been a whirlwind for The Unthanks, including more rumours of a Mercury Prize. One of the most low key, yet memorable of them all will be the few shows they performed , featuring the songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons, a habit which started in 2010. (Read our live review of the Brighton show here.)  Even Wyatt had to admit that the combination of arrangements and vocals were preferable to the original versions and surely it was written in an ancient manuscript long ago that one day two sisters from Tyneside would deliver Hegarty’s “You Are My Sister” to its full potential?

This album is a live recording of one of these shows, specifically from The Union Chapel: claps, coughs, sister banter, the stories behind song choices, even an occasional police siren. Celebrating two of the most adventurous songbooks of the last half-century, the LP is the first volume in what will be a series of Unthank albums called Diversions. (Apparently, Big Albums on Big Labels still on the horizon for the New Year, but the Diversion series being more of a personal, homemade project.)

The opener, ‘Bird Gerhl’ sets the tone for the first half of the live album, dedicated to the songs of Anthony & The Johnsons: piano, strings, and those extraordinary vocals, which are never flighty or angelic, but earthed and clear, pure through intent, if anything.  Every note is careful, composed imbuing a tenderness and respect, the effect soothing without being soporific.

Contemplation takes a turn for ‘Stay Tuned’, another darker layer appears or more accurately, looms – and interestingly this is where the Wyatt half begins.  It may be peppered with psychedelic silliness, interpreted in a quintessential, quirky folk way, (‘Dondestan’) but tracks like ‘Lullaby for Hamza’, ‘Lisp Service’, ‘Free, Will & Testament’, ‘Cuckoo Madness‘, and the first Robert Wyatt song Rachel Unthank heard, ‘Sea Song’, all of them echo warnings, weariness; a struggle for open hearts and fools.

It may be against the girls are nature to encourage women to sing other people’s songs: it’s the 21^st century and there is so much to say, but The Unthanks have convinced us that their behaviour is admirable.  There is not one false token or gesture of musical exhibitionism here. They’re not so much covering other people’s songs but telling them much better, arrangements that have got under the skin of the songs and in to the hearts of us ordinary folk, like the composers originally intended.

Ngaire Ruth

What people have said so far…

2 comments

1. Arike says:

   January 17, 2012 at 9:54 am

   This is an awesome review… I really want to hear the record now!!

   Reply
2. Ngaire Ruth says:

   January 22, 2012 at 8:57 pm

   You HAVE to own a copy of this album Arike. It will always shine brightly in your record collection – for years to come.

   Reply