I missed the Rails' first album, Fair Warning (2014), but if Other People is any indication, it must be pretty good. The promotional material that arrived with the new disc intimates that it's more rocked up than its predecessor. Even so, to my hearing People has the clear feeling of 1970s British folk-rock that the notes ascribe to the previous outing. There's nothing wrong with that.

My own tastes were shaped in part by the pioneering early recordings of Fairport Convention. I still listen to them on occasion, and they continue to stir me with their sharply realized blend of modern rock and traditional folk. Richard Thompson left Fairport after 1970's Full House (still my favorite of its recordings) to pursue a solo career, which I have followed ever since. After he married Linda Peters, they became the duo Richard & Linda Thompson, whose marriage collapsed -- to legendary musical effect -- in the 1980s. Their recordings are deservedly revered.

Kami Thompson, Richard and Linda's daughter, and James Walbourne, who are a couple, comprise the Rails. Their debt to Kami's parents' approach is the first thing I noticed on initial listening. It's not just the very British folk-rock arrangements, it's also the attitude, which is gloomy and scathing. The harmony singing also helps define the sound along with electric guitars played as if they were pipes (effected with particular brilliance in the break on "Shame"). Together, Thompson and Walbourne (the latter formerly of the Kinks, the Pretenders and the Pogues) lay claim to the sort of sensibility one associates with Kami's father. Caustic despair, one might call it, as experienced and expressed in a specifically English way. Though these songs aren't archaic-seeming, one yet senses the ghosts of old ballads and broadsides flitting menacingly in the background.

The album opens with the powerful, tradition-inflected "The Cally," named after a gritty district in North London, calling up memories and envisioning a place in the way of enduring old folk songs shaped by a specific geographical setting. The elder Thompsons were notorious for songs documenting their domestic conflicts, possibly the younger couple's inspiration for People's "Drowned in Blue" and "Hanging On." Like some old murder ballads "Dark Times" boasts a lovely melody supporting a horrifying narrative. "Leaving the Land" -- one of a handful of songs with that title -- echoes thematically laments from Scottish and Irish traditions, though here "the land" is urban, not rural. The more explicitly topical song that follows, "Brick & Mortar," excoriates the socioeconomic forces that drive non-wealthy residents out of London neighborhoods. In each instance, whatever the subject, the writing, the vocals and the production (by respected Nashville veteran Ray Kennedy) slice straight at the jugular.

After 10 originals, People concludes with four covers, three of them ("Australia," "I Wish, I Wish," "Willow Tree") out of the tradition. These appeared initially on an EP in the United Kingdom. I'm glad they're here. They show, if there could have been any doubt on the score, that the couple have also mastered folk in its pure form.

Old or new, the material on this album both celebrates influences and transcends them. Other People is likely to be one of the most memorable recordings you'll hear this year.