Con-tra-dic-shun

What I like about the folk music Megson create is that it's alive. They don't try to mask the realities of the everyday 21st-century life they lead and they write songs that are clearly made by savvy, sophisticated 21st century artists. If folk music is the voice of the people, then this is the voice of the people of today, not an exercise in nostalgic heritage preservation.

Their ninth studio album reveals the level to which they have honed their particular niche. The husband-and-wife duo have done a deft job of placing their own self-penned material alongside a host of 19th-century lyrics – mainly from their native north-east England – which they dazzlingly reinvent with catchy, up-tempo contemporary melodies. Stu Hanna's finely picked banjo, guitar and fiddle frame the fluid interplay of their voices.

Con-tra-dic-shun is, as the name suggests, about the bittersweet ironies of a life in which every argument has a counter-argument. As you might expect, they write wittily on the trials of married life. But this is also a broader social and political album, touching on tolerance to immigrants, parliamentary representation and the temperance movement. Much like the Young'uns, this is on-the-money Teesside folk.