Love songs sung by hearty northern men about other men are hardly 10 a penny in folk. Neither are songs about Teesside grandads feeding refugees, Guyanese foster carers or Syrians swimming in dark water. Twice winners of Radio 2’s best folk group award, the Young’uns tackle urgent, largely contemporary real-life stories on Strangers, galvanising them with bullish harmonies and rousing folk melodies. Be the Man (the story of Matthew Ogston, whose boyfriend committed suicide) is the most affecting song here, its simpler, romantic treatment making the pointed lines about prejudice hit hard (“There’s no god that I’ve heard of who could disagree”). Other moments can feel overly worthy, but when the humour crackles, these songs skyrocket. Bob Cooney’s Miracle, about a man who, during the Spanish civil war, fed 57 anti-fascists with one tin of corned beef, is particularly joyous. “Well, Jesus may have got more done”, the boys shrug, “but he had five loaves not just one.”
