No one has defined exactly what the latest folk movement is. Anti-folk? Nu-folk? Alt-folk? Twisted Folk once just about did the trick, but nothing quite nails what has emerged into the mainstream over recent years from the crowded stages of the Green Man Festival, something that harks back to the "golden" '70s folk-rock of Pentangle, The Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention.
At its heart in Britain is undoubtedly the Mumford & Sons-Laura Marling-Noah And The Whale axis, but the tentacles are more varied and numerous than that. The Mumfords, essentially a rock band drunk on folk music, may have captured a worldwide audience, but Northumberland's The Unthanks, who would probably scoff at any such association, show that traditional folk can move the other way, adapting some of mainstream rock's trappings to turn 200-year-old songs into something ultra-modern. Best of all, there isn't a finger in the ear or pewter tankard hooked on a belt in sight, as genuine and deeply felt emotions are expressed through a thrilling, kind-of-acoustic prism. Andy Fyfe
Essential
Mumford & Sons
Sigh No More
Island, 2009
Treading a woozy, boozy path between the pub and the church just as deftly as it picks its way between rock and folk, Sigh No More's heartache, loss and redemption are ancient themes, but few albums carry them with such pop savvy.
Download: The Cave
Laura Marling
I Speak Because I Can
Virgin, 2010
Reminiscent of both Led Zeppelin III and Joni Mitchell's Blue, the emotional heft of Marling's second album punches way above her tender 20 years. With the Mumfords as her backing band, it is bruised, reflective, accusatory and defiant.
Download: Rambling Man
The Unthanks
Last
EMI, 2011
Packed with strings and horns, songs straddling centuries speak of tragedy, heartbreak, injustice and a giddying, spectral darkness. The voices of Rachel and Becky Unthank are bewitchingly ancient and strikingly modern.
Download: Starless
Recommended
Tunng
...And Then We Saw Land
Thrill Jockey, 2010
The London collective ramped up the guitars and banjos on their fourth album, making them less a folk band with bleeps, more an acoustic Hot Chip. It didn't hurt either that, lyrically, triumph and wonder replaced feral bodily functions.
Download: The Roadside
Stornoway
Beachcomber's Windowsill
4AD, 2010
As much an indie band as a folk one, the quartet of Oxford graduates - named after a burgh on the Isle of Lewis - evoke a very innocent Englishness, the aural equivalent of the BBC's Coast TV show, but by bike with a never-ending picnic along the way.
Download: Zorbing
Noah And The Whale
The First Days Of Spring
Mercury, 2009
A morose contemplation of singer Charlie Fink's split from girlfriend and ex-bandmate Laura Marling, it tracks an affecting arc from the longing that she'll come back to the final resignation that she probably never will.
Download: Blue Skies
For the connoisseur
Eliza Carthy
Neptune Hem Hem, 2011
Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson's girl provides a true link between the old and new. Too often overlooked by hipsters, her smoky voice tours torch songs, jazz and blues on self-penned numbers as startling as the octopus atop her head on the sleeve.
Download: Blood On My Boots
John Stammers
John Stammers
Wonderfulsound, 2011
Over 40 years separate them, but the ghost of Nick Drake stalks Stammers's debut. The Chorlton singer-songwriter adds a touch of Beach Boys and Paul McCartney to the mix, but retains all the emotional weight of his predecessor.
Download: Idle I'm
10:35 AM | 21/12/2011
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