Revival

Cause for excitement on an orchestral scale this week as Bellowhead have released their fifth studio album, building on the steady success of 2012's Broadside. Revival has the band fishing in slightly more uncharted waters than previous efforts, though there remains room for the obligatory famous sea shanty ("Roll Alabama Roll"), modern folk-rock cover (Richard Thompson's "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight") riotous sing-along ("Gosport Nancy") and utter randomness which Spiers & Boden dragged up from some 17th century pamphlet ("Moon Kittens"). Dare I say it, if the album were judged solely on its main eleven tracks, it might weigh in a little less impressively than its predecessors; however, the CD edition includes a second disc of nine further songs - studio-quality demos and finished tracks which didn't quite make the final cut - which, for all intents and purposes, pad Revival out into a double album. And the astonishing range of these dropped tracks not only ensures that there's money's worth for every brand of folk fan, but also that the album stands as a testament to the intelligent, experimental, improvisational musicianship of Bellowhead as a band, offering an insight into how readily they can discover an old song and toss it between the individual group members until it takes a new shape.

They're the most important thing to happen to traditional music since The Pogues, and even manage to do it sober. Keep it coming.