HOW busy these Wainwrights are - and now it's the turn of the older generation.

After albums from showy, baroque Rufus - at the Grand Opera House in York on Monday - and his heart-on-her-sleeve sister Martha, the parents are back. Loudon left Kate to bring up Rufus and Martha and all these years later, regret and betrayal haunt his songs, which are sometimes serious, sometimes cheery - and always properly crafted.

As ever, Loudon takes self-absorption to extremes, yet he draws marvels from this egotistical well. My Biggest Fan is an amusing, robust piece of self-mockery about a weighty fan - "My biggest fan is so large he's a one man entourage" - who actually prefers Dylan and Neil Young. Nanny is a pin-sharp, misty-eyed tribute to his grandmother, while Make Your Mother Mad and Had To Be Her explore the familiar themes of doing what he shouldn't.

Kate and Anna McGarrigle return to the French of their native Canada in La Vache Qui Pleure, a title that plays with the laughing cheese cow. This is fertile territory for the duo, although better explored in 1980's The French Album. Some of the tracks here are truly beguiling, such as the opener Petite Annonce Amoureuse and Ce Matin, yet what begins well seems to peter out a little. Aside from that crying cow, they leave the jokes to Kate's ex.

Updated: 11:03 Thursday, May 12, 2005