Earlier this month, we shared news of Radie Peat‘s debut solo album, No Human Tongue Can Tell, coming to Rough Trade Records on November 13th (pre-order here). Best known as a member of Lankum and one quarter of ØXN, she shared her single, The Moon and Stars, alongside the news.
Out now, her new single is the traditional folk song Hares on the Mountain, a song she learned from Shirley Collins. It appeared on Collins’ 1959 debut album Sweet England and later again on her 1964 album Folk Roots, New Routes, performed alongside Davy Graham. She revisited the song once more in 2023 on her Archangel Hill album.
After releasing Heart’s Ease (2020), Collins also curated a Mixtape for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, featuring her favourite folk singers, which included Radie Peat.
As previously shared, on the folk songs featured on the album, she leads with confidence, self-sufficiency and autonomy in her retelling of love stories from the folk tradition. Creating a moment where one woman’s voice represents the voices of many through the ages.
As the protagonist in this song, she anthropomorphically ponders the unjust gender dynamics of courtship. But ruminations of revenge resolve with pursuits of personal growth and learning. In both Radie’s handling of this song and her curation of references to musical heroes throughout the album, she conveys vignettes of female experience through the lives they lived and the songs they sang.
Stream: https://radiepeat.ffm.to/hares
Album pre-order link – https://radiepeat.ffm.to/human