Wrangling Irish folk into expansive new territory, the group’s stunning harmonies lead us through delicate beauty and nightmarish cacophony
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The first minute of Lankum’s fourth album might lull you into thinking it’s simply a beautiful work of trad folk. Don’t be fooled. The Dublin four-piece open False Lankum with the singer and instrumentalist Radie Peat’s crystal-clear voice beaming out a cappella on the single Go Dig My Grave, but they quickly stagger into expansive territory. Yes, in one sense, they perform what you could call folk. But this is more a stunning collection of Irish trad – and a few originals – reimagined over the roar of droning, emotive arrangements and tight vocal harmonies. Broken into sections by three fugue interludes, the album defies genre while yanking classics into the 21st century.
Lankum have been building up to this sound for years. When they formed more than a decade ago as Lynched, named after the founding members, siblings Ian and Daragh Lynch, they hewed closer to trad’s roots. A 2015 Jools Holland performance of two songs from their album Cold Old Fire seems positively chipper compared with how they sound today (and False Lankum’s 2019 predecessor, The Livelong Day, was even heavier).
