All Smiles Tonight by Poor Creature

We’ve seen an explosion of creativity in the past few years among Irish artists who take an experimental spin on their country’s traditional folk music, keeping the traditions not just alive but expanding and thriving. This trend continues with the new album All Smiles Tonight by Poor Creature, a noisy, fuzzy, percussive retelling of Irish folk standards that expertly amplifies these songs’ original energy and intention. An underpinning bed of simple yet enormous synth sounds hints at an influence from the similarly folk-oriented subgenre of dungeon synth, while massively varied percussion and sonically adventurous strings point back to the grandiose instrumental adventures of 2000s post rock. These elements combined with deeply traditional vocal harmonies and delivery form a creation both personal and spiritual, both wildly ethereal and intimately familiar. On the wings of such breathtaking aesthetic trappings, these ancient words once again walk alongside us in our increasingly complicated lives, uniting us with a world hurting by the same faceless hand that harms us.