Radie Peat: No Human Tongue Can Tell review – Lankum singer’s solo debut is the year’s best folk album

(Rough Trade) Collecting traditional songs of female struggle and strength, the Irish singer invests them with staggering power Lankum singer Radie Peat’s extraordinary debut album begins without frills or ornament: just her voice, stark and low, each breath like air vibrating through the metal reeds of a harmonium.

Singing Hares on the Mountain to the tune Shirley Collins arranged for 1964’s Folk Roots, New Routes, Peat accompanies herself subtly on Fender Rhodes piano before adding layers of Mellotron and Wurlitzer. Her simple, quiet approach is consistently startling and profoundly moving. No Human Tongue Can Tell collects songs of female struggle, suffering, strength and endurance, although Peat only realised this, she…