Mark Lanegan Band - 'Bubblegum' (Beggars Banquet)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Getting by with a little help from your friends is a sentiment that, whilst over four decades old, certainly seems to still pay off. Of course, this could all depend on who your friends are - if, as in the case of Mark Lanegan, you are close chums with such rock and roll elite as PJ Harvey and Josh Homme, then naturally, you're going to get on the phone. But far from being a mere collaboration-heavy, friendly back-slap of an affair, the genius of the misleadingly named 'Bubblegum' is this - these legends are mere bit players. Lanegan himself is solely incredible. Anyone ever making a record should beg him to be on it.
Sometimes the sound is so inviting, the ambience so intriguing, that you find yourself physically wanting to peer into Lanegan's eyes, to examine every wrinkle on his weary face, just to feel like you know that little bit more about where all this fantastic sullenness came from. And that's not to say we want the sordid, drug-addled details of the personal life too often focused on - just more of the music, please.
In honesty, we're becoming a little bit addicted. It sees the same darkness as Bonnie Prince Billy, deals in the same blood money as Tom Waits (he'd do a pretty mean version of the semi-industrial rock of 'Methamphetamine Blues'), but has a pent-up menace of its own that only a life of playing in incendiary rock bands could provide. It could well be a move on the path towards becoming regarded as a classic songwriter in the same way Johnny Cash is presently lauded. The only moment, the lone, piffling instance of something of a lesser quality comes in the bizarre choice of single 'Sideways In Reverse', a Lanegan-by-numbers rocker that serves little purpose, especially when surrounded by what constitutes the rest of the record - that being some utterly sublime songwriting, coupled with a thoroughly captivating delivery.
It's not a good anti-smoking advert. If this is what the habit does to the vocal chords, then can we borrow your lighter? 'One Hundred Days' is the strongest track in an album of corkers, a sorrowful tale of morphine and hookers all conveyed in a voice that you could listen to telling such grubby stories all day. On the brash rock of 'Hit The City', PJ Harvey's soaring tones compliment his growl both majestically and precisely, whereas on 'Come To Me', it's as if the pair are spontaneously singing in chorus in the way casts of musicals do. If they told you they had never seen the words to the song before and that something of such beauty was in fact being extracted from them via some unearthly force, you would believe them.
A youngster could not make a record like this. Whilst there's much to be said for youthful exuberance, the new breed do not have this in them. But although 'Bubblegum' could only be the product of this individual lifetime, it finds opportunity to be cautionary in its tale rather than just reflective (the brilliantly harrowing 'Can't Come Down' for one). It's not music that will make you want to imitate its author, in fact, you might not even want to make his acquaintance. It won't always be kind. But it's been a long time since we heard a record we wanted to listen to this carefully.
Artists in this article: Mark Lanegan Band
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