Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood // Black Pudding
Mark Lanegan reaches maturity
Mark Lanegan, never one to shy away from unique collaborations, has previously worked with Isobel Campbell, Greg Dulli and as a member of The Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age and Soulsavers.
Lanegan and multi-instrumentalist and master bluesman Duke Garwood met a few years ago while playing on the same bill and Garwood was a frequent opener on Lanegan's recent European tour. Lanegan's thick, gutteral, rough and yet tuneful and smooth voice swoops over the 12 tracks on this great album. The marriage of this unforgettable voice and Garwood's Ry Cooder-esque guitar style is perfect. It's music of the deep south, of deserts, of secluded humid willow groves. It's sad, and regretful and full of loss, but also hope.
The title track starts the album with a beautiful rolling spanish-sounding instrumental track; the album also closes with an instrumental track, 'Manchester Special', very delicate and pure sounding. 'Pentecostal's lyrics start with Lanegan grating over the 4 bar blues "Down so long now, Jesus, hold me down so long". He's still interested in his old haunts of religion, life and sex, just like all the best musicians. There's also the slightly hallucinogenic track 'Sphinx', with vocals put through an effects machine to make it sound very weird and wobbly. It's pure 60s psychedelia. Track 4, 'Mescaline', is a slow love ballad to that crazy drug; Lanegan is a man who has lived, and he wants to sing about it ALL, its ups and downs, his struggles and triumphs. He's real and one of those musicians you know HAS to make music on his terms just to get through. Highly recommended, especially late at night in the dark. Just haunting.
9/10 Lizz
