Bearing in mind that "Here Comes That Weird Chill" is subtitled "Methamphetamine Blues, Extras & Oddities", it's important to remember that this 8-track EP/ mini-LP (delete as you see fit) isn't the official full length follow-up to the superb, blasted folk-blues of MARK LANEGAN'S last solo outing "Field Songs."
However, while it's no mere grab bag curio, it IS challenging and may well wrong foot you if you were expecting either more in the vein of the last album or the rockier aspects of the Mark Lanegan Band's live outings.
Of course, on record, the Mark Lanegan Band's personnel is ever-shifting, and - as with most of his solo outings - he's joined here by a host of US alterna-rock luminaries, this time including Greg Dulli, Alain Johannes, Chris Goss, Ed Crawford and (inevitably) Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri from Lanegan's other main project, Queens Of The Stone Age.
Indeed, there are several Homme and Oliveri-helmed tracks that appear to emanate from their "Desert Sessions" recordings. Dense, claustrophobic affairs, songs like the clunking maelstrom of "Methamphetamine Blues" and the overheating, compressed cover of Captain Beefheart's "Clear Spot" are built upon loops, distorto guitars and vivid imagery. When Lanegan breathes firewater over the line; "sleeping in the bayou on an old rotten cot",you can simply feel the sweat dripping off you, it's so clammy and exhilarating.
Elsewhere, Lanegan's delicious gravel and tar growl remains gloriously intact on tunes like "Message To Mine" and the ambitious "Skeletal History." The former features fabulous soul-infused backing vocals from Greg Dulli and Chris Goss and stretches out to throw creepy, but luxurious rock shapes, while "Skeletal History" finds Lanegan spewing all sorts of vivid, Beefheartian voodoo magick over a fluid and ever-shifing backdrop set alight by Homme's diablo guitars. "No history can tell, my skeleton won't tell", breathes Lanegan, sounding like he can arrange a personal lake of fire for anyone who disagrees, before going on to heave up the most feverish stream of imagery since The Birthday Party's "Mutiny In Heaven." Whooh, goose pimple time and no mistake.
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An uneasy respite is afforded by the muttered vows and dignified piano backdrop of "Lexington Slow Down" (the song that most resembles anything from "Field Songs"), but this is soon shattered by "Skeletal History" and the excellent closing "Sleep With Me", which is classic Lanegan in confessional mode. Homme and Oliveri lever up a rhythm like a slow fever, guest Dean Ween (of all people) adds some descriptive lead guitar and Lanegan bares his soul with an honesty that's almost repressive (sample lyric: "The angels have scattered, swearing to God the albatross died in a firing squad"). The effect is painfully compelling, even though the effect dissipates slightly with the weird dub-out 'version' tagged on at the end.
Nonetheless - stop-gap EP or not - "Here Comes That Weird Chill" deserves to be taken very much on its' own merits and is another waywardly important step for a consistently brilliant artist who never ceases to keep us guessing, however furtive his fervent muse may be. Where he will go next is, as always, tantalising.
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