The Specials captured the turmoil and racial tension of early-’80s Britain with “Ghost Town.” Released in 1981, the haunting 2 Tone/ska single topped the charts in the wake of massive riots, the bleak backdrop of Thatcherism, widespread strikes, terrorist attacks and soaring unemployment. Times were rough in Britain, so when the Specials proclaimed, “This place is coming like a ghost town / No job to be found in this country / Can’t go on no more / The people getting angry,” they were simply reporting the harsh realities outside their doorstep.

Forty-five years later, and just in time for the spooky season, Irish doom-folk band Lankum revisits the song with their singular mix of power and patience, and a surprising dose of playfulness. The track begins like a funeral procession, a mournful dirge echoing the original’s desolation, before morphing into something far more buoyant than we’ve come to expect from Lankum. In their own words, it was “an incredibly enjoyable journey that had us gleefully playing with synthesisers and drum machines in Hellfire Studios, trying to come up with the scaldiest ’90s-sounding techno for the outro section of the track.”

Lankum’s “Ghost Town” is a perfect cover song in the truest sense — not just an homage, but a reinvention. It honors the spirit of the original while transforming it into something new, vital and exciting. That’s the trick — and this one’s a treat.