I am growing slowly ever more obsessed with this performance of Blue Bleezin' Blind Drunk. You may be familiar with it from the album The Bairns, but this is a live performance of the song recorded in a pub in Sydney. Very au naturel, you can even hear a car go past at one point. Doesn't matter. Like the badly-tuned piano, it all adds to the atmosphere. This an old northern folk song about domestic violence. It starts off with Becky Unthank, her throat full of hail and melancholy, setting the stage. And then her sister Rachel¹ takes over vocal duties and tears the bleeding arse out of this song. You've really got to hear this. I still get goosebumps every time, this is so fiercely sung. Look, it's good on record but this is way better: sparser and angrier.

1. At least I think it's that way round. It's been conclusively shown that I'm crap at telling which sister is which though.

The Unthanks - Blue Bleezin' Blind Drunk
(alternate download)