LISA O’NEILL

One of the most startling folk albums you’ll hear this year or any other arrives courtesy of the dubliner, who mixes traditional song with original material to moving, bewitching effect.

The album begins with an unaccompanied rendition of ‘The Galway Shawl’, made famous by Alan Lomax’s 1956 recording of the great Margaret Barry. The unconstrained delivery of this popular Irish street ballad is like hearing it for the first time. Elsewhere, ‘rock the machine’ transfixes the listener in a dream-state brought on by droning strings, doleful banjo and o’neill’s pictorial voice. This is music that feels pure and contemporary whilst embodying the past in a most visceral and profound way. Riyl Shirley Collins, lankum, and josienne Clarke & ben walker. “an extraordinary collection of bleak, harsh originals blending into heartbreaking traditionals… uncompromising, stunning, soul-shaking…raw and unvarnished folk for austere times” 5* - guardian