Review of Ballad of the Broken Seas Album by Isobel Campbell
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
Ballad of the Broken Seas
V2
Quite a week for Belle and Sebastian, Isobel Campbell was formerly one of that band's lead singer. In a new break, this album sees her team up with the enigmatic Mark Lanegan (of Screaming Trees and latterly Queens of the Stone Age), to make one of the most compellingly interesting albums in an age. Lanegan's voice is like low rumbling thunder run through a deep mahogany-imbued whisky, and contrasts wonderfully with Campbell's lighter than air voice. The music is a delightful blend of indie-folk and blues, a mix of singer-songwriter styles, which veers closer to Mark Lanegan Band territory - a super-Nick Cave place of deep, cinematic drama and intrigue. The album ties deeply masculine with deeply feminine in a classic Bardot/Gainsbourg way, and is as charming as that concept would suggest. Excellent.
9/10
Mike Rea
Adult Contemporary Essentials
