Blues Funeral
With producer Alain Johannes providing bass, keyboards, and percussion, *Blues Funeral* is the most sonically enhanced album of Mark Lanegan\'s career. Taking the textured walls of 2004\'s *Bubblegum* and reinforcing them with greater variety and tonal density, Lanegan and Johannes build a cathedral of sound that\'s mighty impressive. \"Ode to Sad Disco\" is a long track inspired by the music in Nicolas Winding Refn\'s *Pusher* film trilogy. \"Bleeding Muddy Water\" and \"Deep Black Vanishing Train\" explore the soul of the blues without replicating its form. \"Quiver Syndrome\" drones with a hard rock power and a sense of scorched-earth desperation. \"Harborview Hospital\" breaks like the sun over the horizon. Twilight Singers\' Greg Dulli joins in for the noirscape of \"St. Louis Elegy,\" which ticks like a time bomb and rides an evil wind that blows no good. Queens of the Stone Age\'s Josh Homme adds grisly guitar to the appropriately titled \"Riot in My House.\" \"Leviathan\" crafts a beautifully skewered weirdness. \"Tiny Grain of Truth\" caps things off with a seven-minute anthem that sounds like the wrap-up for a movie about the end of the world.
Citing albums by Kraftwerk, Joy Division, and Roxy Music as influences, the Gutter Twins/ex-Screaming Trees vocalist's first solo album since 2004 incorporates drum machines and oozing synths into the mix.
Citing albums by Kraftwerk, Joy Division, and Roxy Music as influences, the Gutter Twins/ex-Screaming Trees vocalist's first solo album since 2004 incorporates drum machines and oozing synths into the mix.
One thing has kept Mark Lanegan from the hitting the stratospheric highs and catastrophic lows of his grunge-era peers: the timelessness of his voice. Even in his best-known outfit, Screaming Trees, his single-barrel baritone conjured feral purrs and psychedelic wails, sounding so huge it swallowed everything in…
One thing has kept Mark Lanegan from the hitting the stratospheric highs and catastrophic lows of his grunge-era peers: the timelessness of his voice. Even in his best-known outfit, Screaming Trees, his single-barrel baritone conjured feral purrs and psychedelic wails, sounding so huge it swallowed everything in…
Despite sticking doggedly to the un-sunny side, Lanegan produces the most convincing evidence yet of his singular blues-bingeing rock ‘n’ roll survivor talents.
Despite sticking doggedly to the un-sunny side, Lanegan produces the most convincing evidence yet of his singular blues-bingeing rock ‘n’ roll survivor talents.
Careful fans of modern indie rock probably think they know Mark Lanegan fairly well. Better, even, than the Screaming…
Careful fans of modern indie rock probably think they know Mark Lanegan fairly well. Better, even, than the Screaming…
It’s hard to believe that this is Mark Lanegan’s first solo album in eight years; such is the profile of the Seattle scene survivor who has assuredly become the soulful baritone for hire on anyone’s records but his own since Bubblegum. The juddering Gravedigger’s Song lures us back into the dark – blowing away the cobwebs with that familiar growl, Alain Johannes’ unmistakable lap steel and the rattling percussive backbone of fellow Eleven founder Jack Irons.
It’s hard to believe that this is Mark Lanegan’s first solo album in eight years; such is the profile of the Seattle scene survivor who has assuredly become the soulful baritone for hire on anyone’s records but his own since Bubblegum. The juddering Gravedigger’s Song lures us back into the dark – blowing away the cobwebs with that familiar growl, Alain Johannes’ unmistakable lap steel and the rattling percussive backbone of fellow Eleven founder Jack Irons.
Possessing the finest album opener of recent times in the shudderingly malevolent ‘The Gravedigger’s Song’, it would seem that the eight years since Lanegan last flew solo have provided the insp
Possessing the finest album opener of recent times in the shudderingly malevolent ‘The Gravedigger’s Song’, it would seem that the eight years since Lanegan last flew solo have provided the insp
Mark Lanegan's first solo album in eight years is a brooding, deep-voiced triumph, writes <strong>Phil Mongredien</strong>
Mark Lanegan's first solo album in eight years is a brooding, deep-voiced triumph, writes <strong>Phil Mongredien</strong>
There's definitely some music in here somewhere – but feels like a long haul, says <strong>Tom Hughes</strong>
There's definitely some music in here somewhere – but feels like a long haul, says <strong>Tom Hughes</strong>