Most people remember Isobel Campbell as the angelic singer/cellist formerly of Belle & Sebastian, and Mark Lanegan as the former lead vocalist of Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stoneage. They certainly wouldn’t think of these two, whose musical backgrounds are so entirely different, as possible collaborators.
That way of thinking is about to change.
On January 30, their shared album, Ballad of the Broken Seas, was released in the UK. On March 7, it was released in the U.S.
And, oh, what an album it is.
Combining elements of psychedelic folk, country and rock, Campbell and Lanegan revisit the Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood collaborations of the 1960s, or perhaps the duets of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. The result is an original - a gorgeous forty-five minute-long listening feast for the broken-hearted, emotionally drained twenty-something living in 2006.
“Deus Ibi Est” opens the album and demands your immediate replay. “Day on day I’ve marched the beat to someone else’s drum / I have searched for foreign lands, there’s nowhere left to run,” growls Lanegan, in a style reminiscent of late Johnny Cash. Campbell’s sweet, high-pitched Latin chorus envelops Lanegan’s melancholy, rougher vocals, and creates enough romantic chemistry to put Sinatra and Hazlewood to shame. Such is the musical atmosphere of the entire album.
You may wish to cry along with Lanegan on the title track, as he sings “We fucked up the sun until kingdom come, you were under my blood and my skin / My doctor reports if I don’t stop soon, then I’ll drown in an ocean of tears,” or you may opt to grab your own six-pack of beer and bottle of whiskey for the evening. Trust me; you’re going to need ‘em. There is no shortage of bitterness and love-gone-wrong on this album.
“Ramblin’ Man” is a remake of the 1955 Hank Williams classic, made new again with Lanegan’s deep down south dustbowl voice and Campbell’s raspy, whispery one. It ends up sounding like something out of Pulp Fiction (I’m thinking specifically of Ricky Nelson’s “Lonesome Town”). According to Campbell, the song was made with the specific intention of sounding like something out of a Quentin Tarantino movie, and they most definitely hit the mark.
Other album highlights include the sweet and wistful “Honey Child What Can I Do?”, the unreservedly blunt and honest “(Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me” – featuring the brazen lyrics “I won’t say that I love you / I won’t say I’ll be true / There’s a crimson bird flying when I go down on you,” and the most Cash-esque song of the entire album – “The Circus is Leaving Town.” The only drawbacks are the almost entirely instrumental “Dusty Wreath”, and perhaps “Saturday’s Gone.” Both fit the album’s theme, but don’t have quite the same amount of listening power as the other ten tracks.
Future collaborations between Lanegan and Campbell should be highly anticipated.
