1969 was a prolific year for Fairport Convention; from What We Did on Our Holidays to Liege & Lief within twelve months represented a major development.

Fairport Convention had been invited to Bob Dylan's London music publishers to hear then-unreleased tracks from The Basement Tapes sessions.

"[4] In the event, versions of "Percy's Song", "Million Dollar Bash" and "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" (retitled "Si Tu Dois Partir") were used on the album.

[8] The lengthy "A Sailor's Life", a traditional English folk song collected by A. L. Lloyd, was already part of Denny's club repertoire.

[6] In particular, the version on Unhalfbricking has been described as "the turning point of Fairport's history from earlier contemporary Americana to English songs"[9] and by AllMusic's Richie Unterberger as a "clear signpost to the future".

The opening track, "Genesis Hall", is a slow 3/4 waltz, on which Simon Nicol played dulcimer, while Sandy Denny provided the vocals; it was the B-Side of the single release.

[10] Genesis Hall was the nickname of the former Bell Hotel in Drury Lane, which had become a squat in early 1969 and later became noted for a mass eviction by the police.

[11] In the view of Mojo magazine reviewer Mike Baines, "Thompson's writing reached maturity on 'Genesis Hall'".

On 11 May 1969,[22] two months before the album was released, drummer Martin Lamble and Jeannie Franklyn, the girlfriend of guitarist Richard Thompson, were killed in a road accident as the band was returning from a concert in Birmingham.

[2] AllMusic's Richie Unterberger described Unhalfbricking as "a transitional album for the young Fairport Convention, in which the group shed its closest ties to its American folk-rock influences and started to edge toward a more traditional British folk-slanted sound".

[2] Rolling Stone's John Mendelsohn, reviewing Unhalfbricking alongside Liege and Lief, was supportive, describing it as "Fairport Convention at its best" and singling out "Percy's Song" in particular as "the album's gem".

[29] Fairport Convention appeared on Top of the Pops on 14 August 1969, miming to the song and augmented by a roadie, Steve Sparks on percussion.