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Folk music often gets written off as being uncool or irrelevant, such is the media frenzy to discover new bands and new genres. The truth of the matter is that without folk and all of its historical touchstones many of today’s musicians wouldn’t exist or at least would be playing a very different tune.

Sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank are two of the leading lights of contemporary, particularly the traditional English style. Hailing from Northumberland, Here’s The Tender Coming is their third album and it shows a nice trajectory of increasingly mature and accomplished recordings.

The bleakness of previous album The Bairns has been eschewed for a richer sound and a warmer sensitivity. Annachie Gordon takes you on an eight minute journey through the life of its central character. It is hard to avoid comparisons with Sinead O’Connor listening to the lilt of their voices but they are approaching their songs in a much more organic manner.

The sisters and band are effectively interpreters of song as most of the album tracks are versions of traditional songs or covers of favourite tunes. The one exception is Lucky Gilchrist, written by multi instrumentalist Adrian McNally. It stands out from the bulk of the other songs with its upbeat jazz/folk fusion. It sounds like the most contemporary piece of music on the record and would sit comfortably amongst the work of Sufjan Stevens.

Elsewhere the sisters focus the subject matter on child labour in the 1840s (The Testimony Of Patience Kershaw), the lonely life of a cleaner, mother and wife (Nobody Knew She Was There) and the despair that war brings (Flowers Of The Town). Through all the less than chirpy topics there emerges a sense of defiance and pride in The Unthanks music.

The sisters’ northern accents are a big part of why their voices are so enthralling. The way they shorten and enunciate words and sing in a very unadorned manner strips the songs of any pretension or unnecessary drama. Rachel has a cleaner tone on songs like Not Much Luck In Our House while Becky has a lovely husky shadow to her singing that brings to mind Beth Orton on Living By The Water.

The Unthanks have been wise to leave the songs relatively unadorned, choosing to frame them in piano and string instruments with minimal percussion. It all serves to highlight the words and the gorgeous way they are sung. A prime example is the title track, a traditional song whose title refers to the name of a boat coming to take men to sea. You can easily imagine the song being sung in pubs in the distant past, in a form very similar to this version.

Here’s The Tender Coming is essentially a traditional folk record re-contextualised in the modern world. The magic comes from the sister’s voices that can blend seamlessly or wander off in different tonal directions. In a world of indie blog hype and 80s synth flashbacks an album like this feels like a centering collection of songs. Something to immerse yourself in rather than merely being a fashion accessory.