Mark Lanegan Band – Blues Funeral 2LP

Description

Those who liked the moodier, more atmospheric material on the lastMark Lanegan Bandoffering, 2004’sBubblegum, will find much to enjoy on Blues Funeral — an album that has little to do with blues as a musical form.Laneganhas been a busy man sinceBubblegum. In the nearly eight ensuing years, he’s issued three records withIsobel Campbell, joinedGreg Dulliinthe Gutter Twins, guested on albums by theTwilight SingersandUNKLE, and was the lead vocalist on most of the last twoSoulsaversofferings. Produced byElevenguitaristAlain Johannes(who also fulfills that role here as well as playing bass, keyboards, and percussion), Blues Funeral findsLaneganin a musically ambitious place. His voice is deeper, smokier, but more restrained, even on the few straight-up rockers. The grain in his voice is more pronounced, offering a sense of coiled menace on each track, one that is ready at all points to explode the musical confines these songs erect, and to overwhelm them all. To his credit, he never does. While the album is sequenced seamlessly, with varying textures and dynamics, there are standouts. Of the two tracks that feature the mysterious guitaristDuke Garwood, “Bleeding Muddy Water” is a mournful, midtempo dirge.Dulli‘s guest spot on backing vocals on theEnnio Morricone-inspired spaghetti westernism of “St Louis Elegy” is beautifully rendered;Joshua Hommelends his guitar to the over-the-rails rock in “Riot in My House.” Electronics also have a prominent place on Blues Funeral — and not merely as atmospheric add-ons: “Ode to Sad Disco,” melds a four-on-the-floor drum loop to high lonesome guitars asLaneganoffers a drifting, surreal, quasi-mystical narrative worthy ofAlejandro Jodorowsky. “Harborview Hospital”‘s meld of keyboards and guitars touch onU2‘sJoshua Treeperiod and late-’80sNew Order. Weird as that reads, if anything, these expansive retro sonics provideLanegan‘s raspy baritone a foil, with added texture that lends not only a sense of beauty, but walks out the tension between elegiac lyric and harmonic lyricism. “Leviathan” is the only thing that really approaches blues here, though it’s via a 21st century approximation ofLed Zeppelin‘s darker, airier moments onPhysical Graffiti. Blues Funeral, while an adventurous, strident, and complex album, will likely polarize longstandingLaneganfans; but if they can’t follow him into this new terrain, it’s their problem. -All Music Guide