Rough Trade Records are excited to share the debut solo single by one of Ireland’s most influential and revered vocalists, Lankum and ØXN’s Radie Peat – an interpretation of the popular traditional love song, ‘Still I Love Him’. With unique vision, staggering vocal range and a wry sense of knowing, Peat is celebrated for her powerful contralto voice, technical vocal authority, and emotional depth, she distils the essence of folk music, breathing life into old songs and carrying them forward with new meaning, both sustaining and enriching the Irish singing tradition, her strength of will palpable through poised delivery. On ‘Still I Love Him’ Peat traverses the peaks and troughs of romantic relationships, carrying a message of strength and sovereignty out of a song that can easily change shape according to the one that sings it.
Watch the accompanying video directed by Robbie Mailer-Howat with creative by Grace Margetson Studios below.
This distinctive version of the song was discovered by close friend and musical companion John Francis Flynn who came across it in the Irish Traditional Music Archives. Following Flynn’s discovery of the song, he wrote a melody to accompany it and with a view to valorising the song’s female protagonist, he shared it with Peat who dovetailed the melody with her intricate vocal arrangement and nuanced tonal contrasts. ‘I like indirect’ Peat says, “I don’t like being too explicit and I wanted the freedom to make decisions around my voice without having to explain myself”. Describing a process of subtly building and layering her own voice, harmonising for emphasis and atmosphere, Peat talks about “creating emotional connection, that’s what I’m trying to do”, she says, “I’m trying to capture the elation and devastation that can accompany true love”.
Peat describes the archival categorisation of this rare version as disturbing, “John discovered the song in an archive titled “True Love”, I found that so dark – even though you suffer – because of the amount you love someone – you stay, you carry on”. Here Peat represents the bittersweet; the elation then the derailing and disorientating affect – the erosion of the self that happens when romantic embroilment is combined with increasingly poor treatment.
Yet, throughout ‘Still I Love Him’, Peat forges a sense of stability, a soundness amidst the song’s chaotic scenarios where tolerance and forgiveness weathers into resilience. “I was trying to show the two sides of the coin here, I was trying to get across the two extremes that can exist when we are experiencing love”. Across a series of despairing vignettes we hear of a woman wrangling with a difficult partner, “I was representing his escalating bad behaviour with minor chords and sombre tones” but then Peat’s voice ascends with optimism, “there has to be great love to go through that suffering – I wanted the chorus brimming and gushing with romance represented in the vocals and instrumentally with the strings”.
Lankum’s universally acclaimed, Mercury and Ivor Novello Award Nominated fourth studio album ‘False Lankum’, collected ‘Album Of The Year’ honours from UNCUT magazine, The Guardian, Loud & Quiet, The Quietus, as well as very high rankings from MOJO, NPR, DIY, Crack, Songlines, Music OMH, The Line Of Best Fit, Louder Than War, The Skinny and numerous other media worldwide. A very special live album followed, ‘Live in Dublin’ released in January 2025, recorded across three sold out nights at Dublin’s Vicar Street. Lankum’s music has featured in several films and TV shows including the film ‘A Want In Her’ (‘The Wild Rover’) and Netflix’s recent hit series ‘House Of Guinness’ (‘Katie Cruel’ & ‘The Granite Gaze’) and the final scene of the recent ‘The Immortal Man’ Peaky Blinders film.
Praise for ‘False Lankum’ by Lankum:
“By some measure their most ambitious in terms of instrumentation arrangements and the sheer creation of atmosphere” – Uncut, Album Of The Year
“A record that captures the sublimity and scale of an entire ocean” – The Quietus, Album of The Year
“Incredible” – Loud & Quiet, Album Of The Year
“They take songs that trace back to lost worlds and make them sound instead like a future built on the ruins of today.” – Pitchfork
“This may be modern folk music’s own OK Computer” – MOJO, Album Of The Month + No.3 Album of The Year
“It’s a stunner… apocalyptic, a brooding slow-burn that builds to a state of intense droning terror… it’s among the more haunting works of art I’ve experienced lately” – Stereogum
“False Lankum teems with moments of iridescent bliss” – The Guardian, 5/5 Album Of The Year
‘Stunning third album …extraordinary” – Record Collector
Radie Peat Online
