The darkly droning Irish folk band Lankum announced their new album False Lankum by releasing the nine-minute stunner “Go Dig My Grave.” Today they’ve returned with another mesmerizing single, “The New York Trader.” This one begins a bit jauntier than “Go Dig My Grave” but evolves into a terrifying clatter all the same. A word from Lankum’s Ian Lynch:

We started working on “The New York Trader” in January 2021. We learned it, like so many other great songs, from Ringsend native and all-round legend Luke Cheevers. It is one of a group of songs sometimes referred to as the “Jonah Ballads.” The words to the song may be based on an older ballad called “The Pirate” in which the destination was New Barbary rather than “Amerikay.” It was printed on broadsides in the UK where it was quite popular in the 19th century, and versions were subsequently collected in Wiltshire, Norfolk and Nova Scotia in the 20th century. In the song, someone who had done terrible things had found themselves in command of the ship and in order for the passengers and crew to save themselves, it became necessary to throw the captain overboard into the deep, hopefully never to return. Though they did what was necessary, they live in fear as the bloated corpse threatens to resurface, this time commanding an army of the dead.

Listen below.

False Lankum is out 3/24 on ANTI-.