The Unthanks - Diversions, Vol. 4: The Songs and Poems of Molly Drake (2017)

A wistful mother makes some simple home recordings in her family sitting room during the 1950s. Little could she have known that decades later, a daughter would become a successful actress, and her son one of the most poetic and influential songwriters ever. Less still, that more than sixty years later, the dust would be blown off her song collection, firstly in 2013 with the release of her own recordings, and now by The Unthanks, who believe her work is extraordinary enough to rank alongside and independently of her brilliant son, Nick Drake. The Unthanks have teamed up with Molly Drake's daughter, the actress Gabrielle Drake, who along with being an invaluable and generous guide to Molly's work, recorded her mother's poems for The Unthanks to set to music. So taken were the band by her performances, and by how she brought the poems to life, making them her own as well as serving her mother's words, that Gabrielle is truly given centre stage for parts of the record, with The Unthanks setting spoken word to music, rather than turning the poems into song. Never intended for public release, Molly Drake's recordings were of limited sound quality, made by amateur enthusiast and husband, Rodney Drake. In a climate where films, stories and music are being rehashed for spurious repeat exploitation, if ever a body of work actually merited reappraisal and fresh presentation, surely the work of Molly Drake is it. The Unthanks have also been able to interpret a few songs that Molly never recorded, based only on Gabrielle's memory of them, transferred to the band using the oral tradition. Bird In The Blue and Soft Shelled Crabs are examples. In the sleeve notes, The Unthanks have encouraged listeners to look up Molly's original recordings both to hear more of her but also to hear more in this record, because it's only by listening to Molly's originals that an informed view of these interpretations can be gained. In some cases, The Unthanks in characteristically adventurous style, have drifted considerably from the ornamentations and voicings of the original songs, and at other points have yielded more faithfully. At the core in both cases lie the emotive sentiments of a unique and unheralded woman.


The clipped, polished, almost Victorian tones of Molly Drake are a far cry from the working-class voices of Rachel and Becky Unthank, honed in north-eastern folk clubs, giving the songs a deeper texture entirely. The sisters have, in any case, very different vocal styles - Rachel gritty and vulnerable, Becky creamily atmospheric - which makes their harmonies all the more compelling and, aided by Gabrielle Drake's spoken word and arrangements that vary between the bare, the lyrical and the dreamy, it makes for a most moving collection - **** - Colin Irwin, Mojo, July 2017

'One of the albums of the year so far' - ***** - Sunday Express, Album of the Week, 21st May, 2017