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| Track List: 1. Deus Ibi Est 2. Black Mountain 3. The False Husband 4. Ballad Of The Broken Seas 5. Revolver 6. Ramblin' Man 7. (Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me? 8. Saturday's Gone 9. It's Hard To Kill A Bad Thing 10. Honey Child What Can I Do? 11. Dusty Wreath 12. The Circus Is Leaving Town Running time: 42 minutes Released: 2006 |
So from an oddball to an odd couple. I cannot for the life of me think why I first picked up music by Campbell and Lanegan, neither of whom were on my radar in their other guises before I did so. However I seem to recall fond memories of their chalk and cheese duetting, with some stand out songs (albeit maybe not on this album). This is also, I think, the 100th listen of the project. Go me.
Lanegan is gravel-like, Campbell a waif. Him in aggressive rock, her twee indie-pop. This has no right to work - pretty much what all the reviews said. Yet somehow whatever weird fate drew them together turned up trumps. Right away the contrast works. The music is fairly drab to start with, but the real versus the ethereal, dark versus light, of the two voices sets things apart as intriguing and very listenable. The first two songs, at least, are just as dull lyrically as they are musically, and the second drops Lanegan as a vocalist - which happens a fair bit on their collaborations considering he gets equal billing. Without the two singers contrasting each other Black Mountain really has little to recommend it.
The double act is restored for The False Husband, which takes the stark difference further, but accompanying Lanegan with dark, empty brooding notes, and Campbell with a friendlier melody. It is hauntingly brilliant in its simplicity, with her bits being really enthralling... and then they overlay and it is almost perfect. with 3 or 4 different strands to follow you end up getting lost and wondering at the tangle. It has been a sparse week for me and I should have got to this sooner, except that I have been recaptured by Arrested Development and have prioritised my full re-watch of that series (minus the online-only fourth season). As much as I am enjoying that, I regret not having done this one last night when I was a bit more awake and - in truth - quite antsy for something more active to do. It would have both calmed those thoughts and satisfied the itch. The title track is achingly melancholic - I could see it overlaying end credits as the devastation of a tragedy is revealed.
Revolver continues the cinematic theme, this stark tune, with its echoes of westerns, could likewise be accompanying something on screen - except for the vocal, a true duet, which detracts from that angle a bit. Here our singers are paired but it does not work quite as well as some of the call-response or different vocal pieces. Example - the cover of Ramblin' Man, with Lanegan carrying the song, and Campbell husky underneath his main verse. Oh, and hey... Andrew Bird is not the only whistler. It is just a pity that some of the composition and playing is not a bit more daring. There is a fair amount of dull music here, saved noticeably by the song. I guess this was a conscious decision to not overbear the duet with anything that would detract from it but I just feel it represents a bit of a lost opportunity to do something really special not just a good curio.
Occasionally the tunes do elevate above the humdrum, but not often enough. Saturday's Gone has a much lighter touch, and whilst it remains a very simple piece it feels as though there is a degree more sophistication about the song. Unfortunately it is another with no Lanegan, and the novelty of the lighter touch wears off after 2 1/2 minutes as the dull repetition of the rhythm gets to me. This is a relatively long track at 4 1/2 minutes plus and it definitely starts to drag well before the end. The album is a curious whole for sure. Duets, solo songs, and now an instrumental; when the music has been the weakest part of the disc so far, an instrumental is definitely something it did not need. Oh, it is a pleasant enough piece, in a really bland and inoffensive way and if I heard it whilst out and about I would not mind it. Here, though, it is as welcome as a hole in the head - after all it is a track where our stars are not bouncing off each other. I have a feeling that the follow up, Sunday at Devil Dirt was a better album than this one is. It could be my memory playing tricks again by I hear strains of songs with more urgency, more craft put into the music, in my mind when I call it forth. Ballad of the Broken Seas is, overall, a little too twee and a little too laid back to really shine despite the obvious chemistry between the pair. Nothing gets above walking pace, nothing gets in your face and nothing really embraces the sedation to enhance it. It gets caught in no man's land - interesting, but not as good as it could be, and prone to dropping the interest for idle absent-mindedness.
The tracks with both vocalists are just better, and the more prominent Lanegan is the better. I like his deep, dry voiced delivery and it is a better counterpoint to the gentle strumming that is all most of the music amounts to than Campbell's softer distant trilling. The high points of their interaction make it a worthwhile listen, even if I have culled a full third of it after this. The collaboration promises much, delivers on a little of it, and (I hope - since I have more to come in future) holds some back for later arrivals. It is no less conceptually odd a pairing after listening to them, though - however well their voices link up.
Lanegan is gravel-like, Campbell a waif. Him in aggressive rock, her twee indie-pop. This has no right to work - pretty much what all the reviews said. Yet somehow whatever weird fate drew them together turned up trumps. Right away the contrast works. The music is fairly drab to start with, but the real versus the ethereal, dark versus light, of the two voices sets things apart as intriguing and very listenable. The first two songs, at least, are just as dull lyrically as they are musically, and the second drops Lanegan as a vocalist - which happens a fair bit on their collaborations considering he gets equal billing. Without the two singers contrasting each other Black Mountain really has little to recommend it.
The double act is restored for The False Husband, which takes the stark difference further, but accompanying Lanegan with dark, empty brooding notes, and Campbell with a friendlier melody. It is hauntingly brilliant in its simplicity, with her bits being really enthralling... and then they overlay and it is almost perfect. with 3 or 4 different strands to follow you end up getting lost and wondering at the tangle. It has been a sparse week for me and I should have got to this sooner, except that I have been recaptured by Arrested Development and have prioritised my full re-watch of that series (minus the online-only fourth season). As much as I am enjoying that, I regret not having done this one last night when I was a bit more awake and - in truth - quite antsy for something more active to do. It would have both calmed those thoughts and satisfied the itch. The title track is achingly melancholic - I could see it overlaying end credits as the devastation of a tragedy is revealed.
Revolver continues the cinematic theme, this stark tune, with its echoes of westerns, could likewise be accompanying something on screen - except for the vocal, a true duet, which detracts from that angle a bit. Here our singers are paired but it does not work quite as well as some of the call-response or different vocal pieces. Example - the cover of Ramblin' Man, with Lanegan carrying the song, and Campbell husky underneath his main verse. Oh, and hey... Andrew Bird is not the only whistler. It is just a pity that some of the composition and playing is not a bit more daring. There is a fair amount of dull music here, saved noticeably by the song. I guess this was a conscious decision to not overbear the duet with anything that would detract from it but I just feel it represents a bit of a lost opportunity to do something really special not just a good curio.
Occasionally the tunes do elevate above the humdrum, but not often enough. Saturday's Gone has a much lighter touch, and whilst it remains a very simple piece it feels as though there is a degree more sophistication about the song. Unfortunately it is another with no Lanegan, and the novelty of the lighter touch wears off after 2 1/2 minutes as the dull repetition of the rhythm gets to me. This is a relatively long track at 4 1/2 minutes plus and it definitely starts to drag well before the end. The album is a curious whole for sure. Duets, solo songs, and now an instrumental; when the music has been the weakest part of the disc so far, an instrumental is definitely something it did not need. Oh, it is a pleasant enough piece, in a really bland and inoffensive way and if I heard it whilst out and about I would not mind it. Here, though, it is as welcome as a hole in the head - after all it is a track where our stars are not bouncing off each other. I have a feeling that the follow up, Sunday at Devil Dirt was a better album than this one is. It could be my memory playing tricks again by I hear strains of songs with more urgency, more craft put into the music, in my mind when I call it forth. Ballad of the Broken Seas is, overall, a little too twee and a little too laid back to really shine despite the obvious chemistry between the pair. Nothing gets above walking pace, nothing gets in your face and nothing really embraces the sedation to enhance it. It gets caught in no man's land - interesting, but not as good as it could be, and prone to dropping the interest for idle absent-mindedness.
The tracks with both vocalists are just better, and the more prominent Lanegan is the better. I like his deep, dry voiced delivery and it is a better counterpoint to the gentle strumming that is all most of the music amounts to than Campbell's softer distant trilling. The high points of their interaction make it a worthwhile listen, even if I have culled a full third of it after this. The collaboration promises much, delivers on a little of it, and (I hope - since I have more to come in future) holds some back for later arrivals. It is no less conceptually odd a pairing after listening to them, though - however well their voices link up.
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