Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan — Sunday At The Devil Dirt

Hearing these Screaming Trees and Belle And Sebastian castaways collaborating was a strange marriage on Ballad Of The Broken Seas, and it's still a little odd here. I've always felt that Campbell's voice wasn't strong enough to carry a solo album, but here, purposefully relegating herself to background duties, she's found her niche. Campbell wrote and arranged the majority of these tracks, but her singing rarely surpasses accompanying coos. With Campbell in that position, there's a lot resting on Lanegan's shoulders. He carries the assigned burden decidedly well, coming off like a not-so-shabby Leonard Cohen clone. These songs are at their best during their sparsest moments — a gently plucked guitar, with Lanegan crooning over top of it. Sunday At Devil Dirt has been out since May in the U.K., but its late-year North American release comes bolstered with five bonus tracks that rival the original album songs in quality.

Get it from