The Unthanks are an English folk group known for their eclectic approach in combining traditional English folk, particularly Northumbrian folk music, with other musical genres. Their debut album, Cruel Sister, was Mojo magazine's Folk Album of the Year in 2005. Of their subsequent albums, ten have received four or five-starred reviews in the British national press. Their album Mount the Air, released in 2015, won in the best album category in the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In 2017 they released two albums featuring the songs and poems of Molly Drake, mother of singer-songwriter and musician Nick Drake.
Lines, a trilogy of albums about the Hull triple trawler tragedy, the First World War and the poems of Emily Brontë - the principal link between them being their focusing on female perspectives across time - was released in 2019. Their album, Live and Unaccompanied, was released in 2020. Their album Sorrows Away was released in 2022 and received four-starred reviews in The Observer and The Scotsman and a five-starred review in the Financial Times. Their 2024 double album, In Winter, received a four-starred review in the Financial Times and a five-starred review in The Times.