Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Sunday at Devil Dirt (V2)
4/5
By: Andrew Misuraca
I really don't know where to begin with this one. I'm stumped. Seriously. Don't bother reading this, just go and buy it. I know I said in the live review that the records couldn't compare, I know I'm giving the record a higher rating than the show but I'm the kind of guy that can admit when he's wrong, and I am. This is the kind of album that had it been made forty years ago would be in every modern hipster's record collection.
It harks back to the 60s with echoes of Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin, Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra in reverse with Campbell handling the production and the bulk of the songwriting. It's postcard pop, no, cinematic; from the fade-in guitar of 'Seafaring Song' to the last lingering piano of 'Sally Don't You Cry', it's like a Croissant Western, dusty and sexy and sweet.
This, their second record together, benefits from a more confident Lanegan who leads on most songs and gives the record a substantial amount of gravitas. Perhaps it's due to them being in the same studio at the same time (unlike the first record which was a transatlantic affair), whatever it is they've done, it works. This is the kind of album many artists wait years to make and it's hard to fault.
Although obvious, it would be too easy to draw comparisons between the likes of the Bad Seeds and Tom Waits, not to mention unfair to strip them of any creative merit. The melodies are solidly constructed and the instrumentation masterful, the mood is electric and atmosphere heavy but where Nick Cave and co. have more modern immediacy, Campbell & Lanegan have a timeless delivery. It's a recurring theme of loss, salvation and sex in the "bad old world" of ...Devil Dirt where the characters are resigned to the numbness of their lives and the sweetness proffered is like that of horny, plagued teenagers with nothing to do. It's a beautiful dichotomy played to full effect.
The sexy slide guitar of 'Shotgun Blues' plays host to Campbell's cooing temptress ("Oh Daddy/love to hear you moan/I know the night's for rambling/but baby come on home") whilst 'Backburner' sees Lanegan in Waits mode as he croons about what could be either an orgy or an affirmation of fidelity over a slow, percussive groove. The string arrangement on 'Raven' sweeps gracefully around Campbell's backing, doubling up for brief moments and continuing to swirl around the arrangement whilst Lanegan growls out the last days of a man awaiting death and 'Trouble' with its brushed snare and upright bass sees Lanegan almost sighing, "when the neon lights that find you/leave our memory far behind you/down the line I will remind you/listen how I love you", a return to loss and the search for salvation in the arms of another.
Classic and classy, Sunday At Devil Dirt sees two cult icons at their peak and showing no signs of slowing down.
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment