Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
Sunday at Devil Dirt
V2 Records
By Alyce Nicolo
This record is smoky. I’m convinced everyone involved in this record sat in the studio, at a café table, on a creaky wooden porch at dusk, or in the dark corner of some dive club with an Edith Piaf-type on stage, and they all held a constantly lit cigarette, shaking their heads slowly every now and then, careful not to look at anyone too closely, but they couldn’t anyway, not with the screens of smoke everywhere. This is why I suggest not looking at the half-assed album art—the images these songs can evoke are much more interesting.
On their second collaboration, Isobel (she’s the one who put the Belle in Belle and Sebastian) and Mark (Screaming Trees, The Gutter Twins, Queens of the Stone Age, etc., etc.) croon a somewhat-schizophrenic 17-song track list, winding from sultry gravel to finger-snapping twang. But what seemed at first a bit of off-putting ADD actually pulls together surprisingly well, and I give credit to Mark. Yes, Isobel was the record’s matriarchal mastermind, writing, producing, and mixing almost every song, but it’s his pleasingly subtle, seemingly effortless, so-low-it-hurts voice that weaves the songs into a cohesive mix.
As a huge fan of B&S in all their endeavors, and a not-so-huge fan of Isobel á la Amorino, I was pleasantly surprised that the record was less she and more him, I was also a bit perturbed at the songstress’s decision-making at times, like on the song “Shotgun Blues.” It’s here we see her fail at an attempt to be a sultry supervixen—even helped by lyrics like, “Ooh, daddy, love to hear you moan, low,” and that hip-swaying, mesmerizing kind of guitar riff. Instead of picturing a vuluptuous femme fatale, I see a small, foreign girl, trying desperately to be sexy—more doe-eyed than smoldering. And on the most ooh la la of all the tracks, “Come On Over (Turn Me On),” I think she would have been better off leaving Mark to do his bassy thing.
But enough with the Isobel bashing; her vocals do lighten up Mark’s when need be. On the 60s pastiche “Hang On,” they fit just right, and on “Sally Don’t You Cry” (a song that uses the lyric “Give the dog a bone,” and almost makes it work) she’s at her best and most B&S-like in the background. Suppose I can’t be too hard on the gal, since her voice is prominent on “Trouble,” my go-to track on the record (possibly because of its high stuck-in-your-head factor). The slow and restrained track features the London Community Gospel Choir, some bongos, a Spanish guitar, and the glockenspiel to create a lush sound—and you almost don’t notice when the pair’s vocal part ends. When it does end, it closes with a sentiment echoed throughout the album’s lyrics: a boy who’s in love with a girl. (“Listen how I love you,” they swoon, as the music swells just a bit.) Most of the time he does her wrong, but his heart’s always in the right place.
It’s nothing that’s never been done before, but that’s the point. As with her wardrobe choices, it’s clear Isobel reveres the classic, the traditional, the vintage, and for the most part, she and Mark do these varying music styles justice. However, I’m not sure I’d advocate a round three for the duo.
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