CD Review: Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – “Sunday At Devil Dirt”

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – “Sunday At Devil Dirt”
(Fontana International)

This is some sad bastard music. It sounds like something that’d be the background music for the modern-day remake of a Douglas Sirk movie. If they remade Imitation of Life, they’d have these two sing the theme song, and everyone would commit suicide before the opening credit roll had finished. Lanegan’s best known for his work with Screaming Trees, and Campbell got her start with Belle & Sebastian, so this is an interesting pairing. Sunday At Devil Dirt is their second outing together, and it works that beautifully orchestrated pop angle like no other. With all the strings and orchestration, it goes back to the Sirk analogy, but the whole effect is something that sounds like Portishead minus the trip-hop plus Leonard Cohen. Creepy, pretty, not for playing after a breakup (especially when you consider that “Shotgun Blues” is just a dirty, dirty number that will leave you feeling achingly lonely).

Download “Trouble