“Beauty and the Beast” is the obvious literary parallel for the collaboration between Belle and Sebastian singer Isobel Campbell and former Queens of the Stone Age singer Mark Lanegan—her youthful, angelic voice is a stark constrast to his low and raspy one. Together, mostly under her influence, they have crafted a surprisingly beautiful collection of old-fashioned dark pop/folk songs. It recalls the 1960s collaboration between Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, which Campbell names as an influence on her Web site, along with Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings,” (Johnny Cash is an easy comparison; when I bought this album I remarked that it sounded like what would’ve happened if Kylie and Johnny had gotten together).
The Cash-like “Deus Ibi Est” opens the album, starting off with a simple, plodding guitar and bass drum melody with Lanegan chanting, then Campbell’s ethereal vocals come in for the chorus. It’s a great simple song and a perfect opening for what’s to follow. String and acoustic guitar form the foundation of “Black Mountain” which has a meditative quality courtesy of Campbell’s repetitive lyrics. I’m guess the cello bridge of courtesy of Campbell herself. “The False Husband” opens like lovers confronting each other at the O.K. Corrral and sounds like should be the missing ballad from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. The dark western verses (his vocals) break into string-backed mysterious choruses (her vocals). As if the first two songs weren’t great enough, this is the best so far.
“Revolver” is the sole track penned by Lanegan, and it fits in perfectly alongside Campbell’s compositions as another dark, country-ish song. “Ramblin’ Man,” a cover of the Hank Williams classic, sounds like it should be played live in a country bar over a few beers. “(Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me” has the lightest touch of any of these songs, and the two sing together here over just acoustic guitar. This may sound silly, but it recalls visions of Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy from A Mighty Wind.
Despite all the darkness, there are some uplifting tracks too, like “It’s Hard to Kill a Bad Thing,” and “Honey Child What I Can Do,” the album’s most energetic track, which comes closest to the ‘60s Sinatra/Hazlewood influence.
Nominated for the Mercury Prize, Ballad of the Broken Seas is not to be missed. It’s a great collaboration between two talented singer songwriters from seemingly different spheres who have come together to make something quite wonderful.
No comments:
Post a Comment