Lines (Parts One, Two & Three), a trilogy of albums about the Hull triple trawler tragedy (1968), 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.

Cruel Sister received support from a number of DJs on BBC Radio 2 and was subsequently awarded Folk Album of the Year by Mojo magazine.

Their arrangement of the title track − a traditional song about the emotional devastation wrought by press gangs − brilliantly encapsulates the story's fraught desperation.

Their version of Nobody Knew She Was There, one of Ewan MacColl's lesser-known songs about his mother, painstakingly paints a similarly dramatic backdrop with more atmospheric brass, and they put their own stamp on the Nic Jones classic, Annachie Gordon.

"[28] Writing in NME, Anthony Thornton said that the album "proves the mix of Rachel and Becky's voices to be one of the true wonders of 21st-century music".

[30] The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons, a live album based on recordings of these concerts, was released on 28 November 2011 to coincide with a UK tour.

[23][35][36] The album includes Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding" and songs by Graeme Miles, Alex Glasgow, Archie Fisher, John Tams, Peter Bellamy and Jez Lowe, plus a centrepiece track, "The Romantic Tees", written by McNally.

In a four-starred review The Observer's Neil Spencer described it as "a stark creation, using little more than piano, violin and voices" but said that its minimalism "lends poignancy to songs and poetry narrating the glory and grime of a vanished era".

"[38] Joe Breen, writing in The Irish Times, called it "their most ambitious work" and said that it "places them in the same league as the likes of The Gloaming and the Punch Brothers".

[39] In a four-starred review for the Financial Times, David Honigmann said: "Once a bleak Northumbrian chamber folk outfit, the Unthanks have reinvented themselves on a symphonic scale, as witness the 10-minute title track, ushered in on harps and with an orchestration that recalls Gil Evans's work for Miles Davis.

"[40] Robin Denselow, in a four-starred review for The Guardian, said: "This is a return to the gentle melancholia of Last, and while there are fine vocals from the Unthank sisters, the dominant figure is Rachel's husband, Adrian McNally, who plays keyboards and percussion, and produced and wrote much of the music...

[41] Teddy Jamieson, writing in the Sunday Herald, said: "The Unthanks return with an album that takes the folk tradition the sisters grew up on and sails it into wilder waters...

"[42] However, The Observer's Neil Spencer bucked the trend, giving the album three stars, and criticising the "ambitious but lumbering orchestration... Two instrumentals eschew the group's strength; more voices please".

[46] Lines, a trilogy of albums about the 1968 Hull triple trawler tragedy, poetry of the First World War and the poems of Emily Brontë, was pre-released on the band's website in November 2018 and officially released on 22 February 2019.

[56] Rachel Unthank and Adrian McNally provided backing vocals on Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell's 2010 EP The North Farm Sessions and on their 2011 album Kite.

[57] Becky Unthank provided vocals and music boxes on Martin Green's 2014 album Crows' Bones and co-wrote two of the songs.

[60] This showed the customs that people celebrated on different days of the later autumn and winter, and ended with information about the famous Pancake Race at Olney.

[62][63] The Unthanks composed and performed the soundtrack for the 2019 BBC production of the television drama series Worzel Gummidge,[64] and appeared on screen in the Christmas 2020 episode "Saucy Nancy".

[66] Their father, George Unthank, is an interior designer[67] and a well-known local Northumberland folk singer in a group called The Keelers, named after the boatmen (keelmen) who sailed the Tyne.