Those who liked the moodier, more atmospheric material on the last
Mark Lanegan Band
offering, 2004's
Bubblegum
, will find much to enjoy on
Blues Funeral
-- an album that has little to do with
blues
as a musical form.
Lanegan
has been a busy man since
. In the nearly eight ensuing years, he's issued three records with
Isobel Campbell
, joined
Greg Dulli
in
the Gutter Twins
, guested on albums by the
Twilight Singers
and
UNKLE
, and was the lead vocalist on most of the last two
Soulsavers
offerings. Produced by
Eleven
guitarist
Alain Johannes
(who also fulfills that role here as well as playing bass, keyboards, and percussion),
finds
in a musically ambitious place. His voice is deeper, smokier, but more restrained, even on the few straight-up rockers. The grain in his voice is more pronounced, offering a sense of coiled menace on each track, one that is ready at all points to explode the musical confines these songs erect, and to overwhelm them all. To his credit, he never does. While the album is sequenced seamlessly, with varying textures and dynamics, there are standouts. Of the two tracks that feature the mysterious guitarist
Duke Garwood
, "Bleeding Muddy Water" is a mournful, midtempo dirge.
Dulli
's guest spot on backing vocals on the
Ennio Morricone
-inspired spaghetti westernism of "St Louis Elegy" is beautifully rendered;
Joshua Homme
lends his guitar to the over-the-rails rock in "Riot in My House." Electronics also have a prominent place on
-- and not merely as atmospheric add-ons: "Ode to Sad Disco," melds a four-on-the-floor drum loop to high lonesome guitars as
offers a drifting, surreal, quasi-mystical narrative worthy of
Alejandro Jodorowsky
. "Harborview Hospital"'s meld of keyboards and guitars touch on
U2
's
Joshua Tree
period and late-'80s
New Order
. Weird as that reads, if anything, these expansive retro sonics provide
's raspy baritone a foil, with added texture that lends not only a sense of beauty, but walks out the tension between elegiac lyric and harmonic lyricism. "Leviathan" is the only thing that really approaches
here, though it's via a 21st century approximation of
Led Zeppelin
's darker, airier moments on
Physical Graffiti
.
, while an adventurous, strident, and complex album, will likely polarize longstanding
fans; but if they can't follow him into this new terrain, it's their problem. ~ Thom Jurek