Got Me Dancing To Her Melody
26th February 2006 by
Review: Ballad of the Broken Seas — Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan.
So the tweeest girl in Glasgow and the frontman of Screaming Trees (and occasional Queens of the Stone Age vocalist) Mark Lanegan got together to make a record. I think probably literally nobody would have predicted that particular pairing but literally everyone I’ve spoken to about it thought it sounded like it ought to be brilliant. And fortunately, it is.
Lanegan’s menacing growl is obviously a perfect foil for Campbell’s dreamily angelic voice and with a backing at turns shimmeringly folky or poundingly urgent, the combination is applied to an impressively varied range of songs.
If there’s any criticism to be made at all, it’s that the songs where both artists have significant vocal input, like Ramblin’ Man and The False Husband, are a little bit stronger than those that don’t. But that’s kind of like complaining that the moon on a stick you’ve just been handed isn’t gold–plated too.
An excellent album. I hope there’s a sequel.
