‘Mark! It’s the '90s on the phone, they want their album back!’
A little joke for you there. That said, there is some real fun to be had with Mark Lanegan’s 10th solo album, ‘Gargoyle’. Tracks like Goodbye to Beauty and Nocturne have a patience and maturity that is highly nuanced and involving, while Death’s Head Tattoo and Sister are strange, vintage hybrids. The latter is a funereal dirge driven by a hectic reversed piano motif. Its vocal recalls David Bowie’s Cat People: all subliminal contempt and campfire spirituality.
Elsewhere, Drunk on Destruction recalls the former Screaming Trees frontman’s grunge heyday alongside drum ’n’ bass grooves that sound, frankly, terrible. The singer’s distinctive growl underpins the track, but it still feels like a watered-down collaboration between Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen.
Basically, while the cheap aesthetic of the album is the biggest problem, it is not helped by mediocre, if varied, songs. And yet, the top moments arrive when Lanegan is at his most derivative.
Emperor is one such track - it recalls Iggy Pop’s The Passenger in a way that is one part magical and one part highly contemptuous. The song almost hits upon that immaculate hypnotic nerve that lies in Iggy’s song, and yet somehow, devastatingly, doesn’t manage it.
You know that element: it’s that relentless repetition of chords and groove that take you back to music at its most primal - in woodland glades and chalky deserts - where we were one with nature and closest to God.
That element of fire and magic clearly burns in Lanegan, it’s just that the essence of his music is dated and dubiously nostalgic, a photocopy of a photocopy. It’s like a pair of ill-fitting Guess jeans that never really looked good, but fashion told you that they did. And now they seem to represent a person that you once pretended to be.
Mark Lanegan Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Mon June 19 2017 - BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute2
Tue June 20 2017 - GLASGOW Garage
Wed June 21 2017 - MANCHESTER O2 Ritz
Thu June 22 2017 - LONDON KOKO
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