Although MARK LANEGAN'S high-profile collaborations with Queens Of The Stone Age may have made for some thrilling music - and probably acted as a financial boon for him into the bargain - this writer feels it's something of a double-edged sword he's been handling, as Lanegan's solo career is the one the discerning really need to keep a watchful eye on.
Because, ever since Lanegan's old band The Screaming Trees imploded following the masterful "Dust", he's gradually mutated into a singer/ songwriter of true gravitas and depth, capable of producing music with the dark, redemptive power we usually associate with the likes of Johnny Cash and Nick Cave. Indeed, with his last full-length album proper ("Field Songs"), Lanegan created a blasted, folk-blues masterpiece that threw down a personal gauntlet for his future muse. Could he possibly top it?
Last year's extended EP "Here Comes That Weird Chill" served notice that Seattle's man in black had every intention of doing just that, and now the sardonically-titled "Bubblegum" arrives to ask us why we could possibly have doubted him.
I've no intention of beating around the bush here. "Bubblegum" is a masterpiece however you decide to slice it. It's culled from a number of sessions from 2003 through to this spring and while the idea of the 'MARK LANEGAN BAND' is something of a misnomer as - featuring everyone from all of Queens Of The Stone Age, Polly Harvey, Chris Goss, Eleven's Alain Johannes and even ex-members of Guns'n'Roses - the guest musicians are a cast of thousands. Brilliantly, though, everyone involved does their thing tastefully and never dares to try competing with THAT deliciously gravelly, smouldering voice. The end results are - without exception - utterly breathtaking.
Actually, the only conundrum is where to lavish the most praise. Should we start with the rockers? Hell, yeah, why not? "Hit The City" is the first of two duets with Polly Harvey, and it's big, ballsy and liberating. Then there's the perma-revving "Sideways In Reverse", featuring John Kastner from long-forgotten Canadian heroes The Doughboys on guitars. It's superb and the album's obvious single, although the overheating, kerosene kiss of "Driving Death Valley Blues" ain't far behind. This one's a collaboration with Alain Johannes and finds Lanegan intoning "don't wanna go cold turkey": reminding us that those demons are still only barely at arm's length.
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Terrific these may be, but they're soon eclipsed by the slower tunes. "One Hundred Days" and "Strange Religion" both hark back to "Field Songs" in terms of feel, and both are magnificent. The former is a beautifully-weighted, mysterious ballad, while "Strange Religion" sounds like a dark'n'soulful updating of "Pill Hill Serenade" and is lifted by some fabulously evocative backing vocals from (of all people) Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin. Truly something to behold.
The clunking, menacing "Methamphetamine Blues" from "...Weird Chill" again features, and in terms of atmosphere, several other choice tunes here are cut from a similar cloth. To this end, check out "Wedding Dress" - a brilliant, brooding psycho-blues built aound a diseased bossa nova and Aldo Struyf's Devo-esque synth - and "Like Little Willie John", which is a weird, semi-acoustic nocturnal blues with whirring organ and a scarred drum machine. It's the kind of thing Lanegan's old sparring partner Jeffrey Lee Pierce would have adored.
The heat stays with us to the bitter end. Indeed, as we enter the home strait, Mark wheels out the gorgeously pretty confessional "Morning Glory Wine"- which is cradled and caressed by Johannes' attractive, chiming guitars - and finally lays us down with he diablo-infused postscript "Out Of Nowhere", where the high drama builds beautifully through David Catching's Vini Reilly-style guitar. It's some way to sign off and merely implores you to go back to the start again.
"Bubblegum" is a multi-faceted masterpiece that twists its' knife into both black-hearted Americana and storming, full-pelt rock'n'roll and is never less than mesmerically compelling. As darkly charismatic singer/ songwriters go, there's no-one can touch Mark Lanegan right now and this album is once again the sound of a man upping his personal ante to precariously exciting new heights.
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