Ballad of the Broken Seas

Isobel Campbell, Mark Lanegan, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 7, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: V2 North America
• ASIN: B000E6GBVW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,656 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Deus Ibi Est

2. Black Mountain

3. False Husband, The

4. Ballad Of The Broken Seas

5. Revolver

6. Ramblin' Man

7. Come Walk With Me?, (Do You Wanna)

8. Saturday's Gone

9. It's Hard To Kill A Bad Thing

10. Honey Child What Can I Do?

11. Dusty Wreath

12. Circus Is Leaving Town, The

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While duets have been often turned into pairings that dilute both participants into toothless blobs, that's not the case here. Scottish singer Isobel Campbell, formerly of Belle & Sebastian here teams up with Mark Lanegan, formerly of Screaming Trees and collaborator with Queens of the Stone Age. It's a classic beauty and the beast alignment, with Lanegan's gruff baritone sounding like the protector of a beautiful little bird. This is a combination that's been done with success previously by the likes of Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra, and Serge Gainsbourg with Jane Birkin. The instrumental settings further underscore the gorgeously weathered timelessness of these dozen songs. This is music that straddles several centuries, updating traditions with confidence and subtle invention. --David Greenberger

Product Description

There's a certain "beauty & the beast" quality to the greatest male/female, singer/songwriter duos. Consider Jane Birken hooking up with Serge Gainsburg, or Nancy Sintra and Lee Hazelwood. And so it is with "Ballad of the Broken Seas", an album length collaboration between Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan.There's a similar contrast between Isobel's aching, pristine chill of a voice and Lanegan's wounded, regret-stewed burr.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A lovely mess of styles and sounds, March 20, 2006

By 

Eric Franklin (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ballad of the Broken Seas (Audio CD)

This album has been rolling on my ipod all morning long and it is really getting its claws into me. The songs are all over the place stylistically, which leaves me to wonder what album some of the other reviewers were listening to. All I can say is that this album captures some really fun music-making between two artists I never thought I'd have the chance to hear together. Gravelly Lanegan with soft Isobel make a compelling auditory delight. The only thing that keeps me from giving the album 5 stars is that it occasionally lapses, especially lyrically, to "punching up" something that would have been left better alone. There are beautiful passages ruined with a misplaced line. Byt hey, that's my opinion.

Track one, "Deus Ilbi Est", starts thumpin' with a simple beat, like feet stomping in an Irish bar, while Mark Lanegan does whiskey-fueled spoken word. Isobel sings backup. A promising album starter.

From here, the album moves into a softer passage with "Black Mountain." Isobel leads this one softly while a repetitive arpeggiated guitar plays in the background. Occasional strings punctuate the moving passages.

"The False Husband" starts out sounding like a "Lanegan spaghetti-western special" but when Isobel breathily intones the chorus, the background music changes to orchestral accompaniment. The song mashes their two styles together in an inventive and fun way. It's as if both singers brought their own song, played them together with their own bands, and just saw what would happen. You can almost hear the singers's surprised happiness at how good they sound together.

I'm not going to step through each song individually, but they're lovely. If you're a fan of the off-beat Tom Waits (just listen for the influence on "Ramblin' Man"), the messier (read true) old school country standards, and just plain incongruous music making, this is your bag.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Damn., April 25, 2006

By 

Stargrazer "the lost mixtape of my life" (deep in the heart of Michigan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Ballad of the Broken Seas (Audio CD)

Lanegan's rich croak and Campbell's feathery, nearly whispering voice combine over top of open arrangements of guitar, double bass, piano and glockenspiel. Though Campbell wrote a great deal of the material here, played several instruments, and produced the album, Lanegan's singing gets at least equal billing.

A high mark of collaborative albums, this one is likely to set new standards.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A highly unusual collaboration results in a stellar album, November 4, 2006

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ballad of the Broken Seas (Audio CD)

Although I have loved a great deal of the previous work of both Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, they are two people I never would have imagined pairing for an album. Not only that, when first learning of this album, I imagined that Lanegan was the principal songwriter for the project. In fact, she wrote nearly all of the songs on the disc, though to his credit Lanegan embraces the ones upon which he sings so marvelously that he does indeed make them sound like his own. As I said, I've loved both of these performers in other projects. Campbell, of course, is the lovely, airy female voice adorning all those incredible Belle and Sebastian songs, though she also has a slightly earlier and very find solo album, AMORINO. What that album revealed was what perhaps few suspected: though taking a backseat to the outrageously gifted Stuart Murdoch (who just might have been the finest writer in all of rock the past decade) in Belle and Sebastian, she is a significant talent in her own right). Lanegan has also produced some great solo work, especially WHISKY FOR THE HOLY GHOST, but is even better known for fronting The Screaming Trees and for his work with Queens of the Stone Age. If I were to compare what these two sound like together I might compare them to Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle on the album they did together or, ever better, the duet that Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue did on his MURDER BALLADES.

The pairing of these two talents is magical. While it would be hard to hate Isobel Campbell's singing, her voice is so soft, delicate, and ethereal that it can almost feel otherworldly after a bit. Frequently she seems to be not so much singing as whispering. Lanegan's rough, coarse, raspy baritone, on the other hand, contrasts magnificently with Campbell's. The singing duties are not quite evenly divided, with Campbell seemingly content to Lanegan take lead duties, often contenting herself with singing backup on her own songs. His singing gives an edge to the songs; her singing gives them a spiritual dimension. My one complaint with the disc is that they don't sing more duets. One of my favorite songs on the disc is "(Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me?" on which Lanegan sings to an acoustic guitar, with Campbell almost nonchalantly providing a counterpoint.

Despite Lanegan's presence and strong singing, this is very much an Isobel Campbell album. If you listen to WHISKEY FOR THE HOLY GHOST and then this one, you can't help but be struck by the enormous differences in the songwriting. The songs on both albums are equally good, but they are quite different, the ones here more easily melodious and a bit folksier. This is also just a great set of songs. It starts off strongly with "Deus Ibi Est" and then gets even stronger with "Black Mountain," with Campbell at her very finest. The best song on the disc for my money is the last cut, "The Circus is Leaving Town." Lanegan's lone writing contribution to the album is a good one, "Revolver." One of the highlights of the album, however, is one of the best covers ever of the Hank Williams's classic "Ramblin' Man." They don't cover it so much as reinterpret it, and a very good revisioning it is.

I can't imagine many Isobel Campbell fans being disappointed in this album. Some hardcore Screaming Trees or Queens of the Stone Age fans, however, might not find it to their liking (though I sincerely hope I am wrong about this). But if you just love great music in whatever form it arrives, this could well be your cup of tea.