The livelong day

"A fierce and fragile masterpiece ... Expectations upended, preconceptions shattered: that's the shape of Lankum's world, and it's a world of wide horizons and imaginations writ large on The Livelong Day ... [Radie] Peat possesses an unshakeable sense of herself as not only a vocalist (and player of harmonium, accordion and Wurlitzer) but as a harbinger of what's to come, with all the devil may care attitude of Margaret Barry, the chutzpah of Chrissie Hynde and the insouciance of Lou Reed. Every listen circles back to that inside-out reading of The Wild Rover. Who knew that this garrulous bar room brawl of a song had its origins as an English ode to temperance? This is exactly the terrain in which Lankum flourish: reframing blandly (and for some, jadedly) familiar songs in a wickedly new context that forces the listener to re-evaluate the music from the ground floor up".

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"Folk album of the month" - "Imagine a folk album influenced by the ambient textures of Sunn O))) and Swans, plus the sonic intensity of Xylouris White and My Bloody Valentine. Ever since their first recordings as four-piece Lynched, in 2014, Lankum have been subjecting their songs to increasingly extreme treatments in dynamics, arrangements and length ... Uilleann pipes, concertina and harmoniums drone terrifyingly, sounding drained of their souls. Vocal harmonies evoke the witchy barrenness of Portishead's Third. But don't run away screaming just yet. How Lankum redirect well-known folk songs is worth staying for ... Nothing less than a thorough exploration and devastation of folk's most conventional tropes is Lankum's impressive game".

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"Neither for the faint of heart nor short of attention, The Livelong Day is a vigorously played, smartly arranged long game that sees classics like "The Wild Rover" and "Katie Cruel" stretched and driven into unpredictable minor epics using little more than the group's voices and a handful of acoustic instruments. The nostalgic, edgeless world of contemporary Celtic music may as well not exist for Lankum, who seem to borrow more from the earthy folk-rock lineage of the Watersons, Planxty, or even Comus' mossy aberrance. Eschewing the loose psychedelia of the acid folk revival and the cloying earnestness of indie folk, Lankum are quite deliberate in their manipulation of the traditional folk idiom ... The Livelong Day is a challenging album made up of long, droning songs with numerous verses and arcane sounds. It will not be for everyone, but to the discerning listener, its dark majesty is well worth the engagement".

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"Top of the world" - "Shapeshifting Irish tunes: dark, ancient and new all at once".