Many a Thousand

This third studio album from the Norfolk-born folk duo follows their impressive 2016 release, Night Hours. It contains all the same elements – a seamless mix of original and traditional songs, beautifully weighted playing and a preoccupation with profound questions of political, social and environmental concern. It's serious stuff but, like the best serious stuff, it's delivered with a delicate touch.

Many a Thousand's opener sets the tone and the tempo. ‘Hope and Glory’ is a deliciously melodic song that cuts to the heart of England's current problems with insidious nationalism. This duo treat such contemporary subject matter in folk song as well as anyone this reviewer has heard. Their self-penned songs stand up to scrutiny alongside traditional numbers such as ‘Poacher's Fate’ and ‘Working Chap’.

Once more, Aldridge's hypnotic banjo plucking brings a distinctiveness to their sound, sitting clear above languid guitar. The pair are joined by Tom Moore on violin and viola, double bassist Twm Dylan and drummer Fred Harper. Nowhere is their talent – and their confidence in using silence as well as sound – better illustrated than in their rewriting of the spiritual ‘No More Auction Block’ as ‘Hawk's Call’.