An Irish folk super-trio comprising Landless’s Ruth Clinton, Lankum’s Cormac MacDiarmada and their live drummer John Dermody, Poor Creature diverted from the intensity of their other groups to make one of 2025’s most surprising, haunting and gently poppy debuts. The title track and “Adieu Lovely Erin” spring off digital rhythms to sound like Broadcast entering the whirlpools of folk, while in “Willie-O” and Irish love song “An Draighneán Donn (The Blackthorn Tree)”, they build up delightful, dream-like layers of texture. Fiddles and guitars mix with theremin, mid-century organs and modern-day synthesisers to create an intriguing new palette for the genre.
The latest gorgeous release from the fecund Irish folk scene doesn’t begin with bassy dread in the Lankum mode, but a mood of gentle, haunting psychedelia. “Adieu Lovely Erin” starts by evoking Broadcast swirling around a maypole; then it’s as if Cocteau Twins had been transported to a traditional music session. Its sweet, high female vocals also evoke the improvisations of sean-nós singing, while simmering, krautrock-like drums build drama.
Poor Creature comprises three musicians expert in heightening and managing atmosphere: Landless’s Ruth Clinton, Lankum’s Cormac MacDiarmada plus live Lankum drummer John Dermody. Their debut album steeps cowboy songs, Irish ballads, bluegrass and other traditional songs in a misty, playful lightness that somehow also carries an eerie power. “Bury Me Not” is a 19th-century American song about a dying sailor desperate not to be buried at sea, and Clinton delivers its lamenting lyrics with a bright, shining innocence. MacDiarmada leads “Lorene“, a rolling, country ballad by Alabama duo the Louvin Brothers, with a similarly soft, brooding magic. Singing as a boy desperate for a letter from his beloved, despite clearly knowing he’s being ghosted, the song’s melancholy slowly rises as voice and guitar mesh together.
The Fat Angel Sings 