"Folk album of the month" - "Imagine a folk album influenced by the ambient textures of Sunn O))) and Swans, plus the sonic intensity of Xylouris White and My Bloody Valentine. Ever since their first recordings as four-piece Lynched, in 2014, Lankum have been subjecting their songs to increasingly extreme treatments in dynamics, arrangements and length ... Uilleann pipes, concertina and harmoniums drone terrifyingly, sounding drained of their souls. Vocal harmonies evoke the witchy barrenness of Portishead's Third. But don't run away screaming just yet. How Lankum redirect well-known folk songs is worth staying for ... Nothing less than a thorough exploration and devastation of folk's most conventional tropes is Lankum's impressive game"

"Neither for the faint of heart nor short of attention, The Livelong Day is a vigorously played, smartly arranged long game that sees classics like "The Wild Rover" and "Katie Cruel" stretched and driven into unpredictable minor epics using little more than the group's voices and a handful of acoustic instruments. The nostalgic, edgeless world of contemporary Celtic music may as well not exist for Lankum, who seem to borrow more from the earthy folk-rock lineage of the Watersons, Planxty, or even Comus' mossy aberrance. Eschewing the loose psychedelia of the acid folk revival and the cloying earnestness of indie folk, Lankum are quite deliberate in their manipulation of the traditional folk idiom ... The Livelong Day is a challenging album made up of long, droning songs with numerous verses and arcane sounds. It will not be for everyone, but to the discerning listener, its dark majesty is well worth the engagement"

"A fierce and fragile masterpiece ... Expectations upended, preconceptions shattered: that's the shape of Lankum's world, and it's a world of wide horizons and imaginations writ large on The Livelong Day ... Radie Peat possesses an unshakeable sense of herself as not only a vocalist (and player of harmonium, accordion and Wurlitzer) but as a harbinger of what's to come, with all the devil may care attitude of Margaret Barry, the chutzpah of Chrissie Hynde and the insouciance of Lou Reed. Every listen circles back to that inside-out reading of The Wild Rover. Who knew that this garrulous bar room brawl of a song had its origins as an English ode to temperance? This is exactly the terrain in which Lankum flourish: reframing blandly (and for some, jadedly) familiar songs in a wickedly new context that forces the listener to re-evaluate the music from the ground floor up"

"Having never lost touch of their anarchic punk spirit, it's the band's passion and respect for folk song that makes The Livelong Day such essential listening ... Much like how contemporaries Richard Dawson and Lisa O'Neill handle traditional material, there's the sense as a listener that you are bearing witness to a visceral connection that reaches back across time ... Writhing with the terror of our times one moment, then rising with indescribable heart and hunger the next; this is traditional song stretched and submerged ... Of all the artists working within the rather loose confines of alternative folk (O'Neill, Dawson, Stick In The Wheel, Sam Amidon and Anna & Elizabeth, to name a few standouts) The Livelong Day surely puts Lankum at the forefront. Direct and otherworldly, undoubtedly, it's going to take more time to absorb, but right now to these ears, it sounds timeless"

"Dublin-kvartetten Lankum har fra sit helt eget hjørne af irsk folkemusik bevæget sig ud i en fornem ekspansionspolitik her på deres tredje, aktuelle album The Livelong Day. Ikke nok med at de erobrer og omfortolker »Wild Rover« og andre traditionelle folkesange, de forlener også deres kulturarv med noget ekspansivt i lyden, en enorm bredde og dybde. En produktionssidé og et klangformat, der hiver dem ud af pubbens hygge, ud på de store vidder ... Med Lankum har den irske folkemusik fået sig en en flok fordomsfrie opkomlinge og frygtløse arvtagere. De tager sig gevaldige friheder uden på noget tidspunkt at slippe jernnæven om rodnettet. Og i processen udluger de irsk folkemusiks stereotyper - ikke så meget fest, folkelighed, fadøl og firkløvere, men stadig masser af skæbnefortællinger"