She went upstairs for to make her bed
Finishing my trip up The Guardian's top 50 albums of 2023
#1 : False Lankum - Lankum
Lankum’s fourth album is a stunning collection of Irish trad – and a few originals – reimagined over the roar of droning, emotive arrangements and tight vocal harmonies. Broken up into sections by three “fugue” interludes, False Lankum defies genre while yanking classics into the 21st century. In a year of braggadocio rap, highly personal pop and TikTok-fuelled hits, it hacked out its own path: an undeniable work of scale and dynamic builds, with few songs ending sounding as they started. That variety was intentional, and ends up being incredibly effective. As singer Radie Peat put it: “Things work best in contrast because it makes both parts stand out. If something is the same for two hours, your brain stops hearing it.” There’s no chance of that happening here: the staggering beauty of False Lankum stays with you long after its run time concludes
One I've somewhat surprisingly heard - it was #1 in Rough Trade's end-of-year list so I thought I'd check it out. And I quite liked it, but never went back to it so it will be interesting to see what a second listen brings.
Yeah, I still quite like it but it's hard to say it's actually enjoyable. It's also very tricky to describe - I think I'd go for "shoegaze folk". It has its roots in ye olde folk - but it's been brought up to date, but not really that much up to date because whilst they've used modern instruments they used them in a way that doesn't particularly sound modern or really like anything I've heard before. And when it works, it really works, but I do think a lot of the songs have a tendency to run on too long. I suspect if I was watching them live I'd be enthralled by it all, but recorded it just felt a bit elongated. It's all an interesting listen but I struggle to claim I'd listen to it very often.
Wikipedia tells me this is their fourth album and it was shortlisted for the 2023 Mercury Music Prize. The critics were pretty keen on it and a lot of them came out with all sorts of bollocks, but I can go with AllMusic who said it was a "nihilistic, almost comically bleak trek into the dark heart of folk music" - they're not looking for jolly ditties here, although I'm not sure I see the comical nature of it. It didn't as well as some others on the year-end lists because they're not from the US, but The Quietus, Uncut and The Guardian all made it their #1 album of the year. It did well commercially in certain areas - #47 here, #40 in The Netherlands and #2 in Ireland (which isn't a huge surprise).
"Customers also listened to" Lisa O'Neill, The Mary Wallopers, Ye Vagabonds and Young Fathers - and the only connection I can see with the latter is their lofty position on this list. I'm happy enough with Lankum taking the top spot - it's a well put-together album which does some different things, but I'd struggle to say it's actually enjoyable.
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