Rating: NN
There’s no question that Mark Lanegan could use some help, but teaming up with Belle & Sebastian’s fairy princess Isobel Campbell as duet partner and producer doesn’t seem like it would work. And judging from this four-song sampling from their collaborative album, Ballad Of The Broken Seas (due March 2006), it doesn’t. While Lanegan’s vocals are better than they have been recently, there’s clearly no chemistry – no connection at all – between the two singers. The Hank Williams title track, which Campbell reckons is “quite nasty,” sounds like a Pastels outtake, and it just gets more light and fluttery from there. Someone, please get her a blues record.
