Customer Reviews

Ballad of the Broken Seas

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I heard about this record on the radio during an interview with Campbell, pulled my car over to write down who it was, and bought it at the next record store I came across--first time I have ever done that. This haunting, sweet, strange, spooky and atmospheric CD restored my faith in modern music. It was as if Campbell had stolen all the favorites from my record collection--Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, Ennio Morricone, Tom Waits, the Violent Femmes, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, then whipped them up into an amazing, diverse, concotion that was also entirely unique and unexpected. The way her voice blends with Lanegan's is fantastic--sugar and salt, sweet and tart, high and low. I am recommending this record to everyone--and now including you, dear reader.

When I first heard that Isobel Campbell was doing an album with Mark Lanegan, I wasn't all that excited. I have always enjoyed Lanegan's music but I was unsure of how that would mix in with Isobel's voice. Granted I had only heard her singing with Belle & Sebastian and am unfamiliar with her solo work. But based on what I've heard on this cd, I am very interested in hearing more. The two of them belong together - especially on the infectiously groovy "Honey Child What Can I Do?" Isobel seems to be evoking more and more of a Dusty Springfield sound, which blends gorgeously with Lanegan's baritone. The interplay between their voices catches the listener instantly, and stand-outs like "Honey Child" and "Ramblinman" are also perfect rock singles. But the album refuses to simply be a collection of catchy confection and plays to the strengths of the two leads. Both know how to channel their shadows, and the dark loveliness of "Black Mountain" into "The False Husband" is one example of how the beauty in the Broken Seas is the protean interplay of dark and light.

An unlikely but extreme successful combination, Isobel Campbell's pure Scottishness married to Mark Lanegan's weathered American blues is a beautiful union. It's the swaggering, smoulderingly sexy cover of Hank Williams' 'Ramblin' Man' that immediately grabs the attention, but closer inspection reveals a wealth of treasures. The darkly understasted 'Deus Ibi Est' recalls Nick Cave and Tom Waits, and the log-cabin folk of the Lanegan-penned 'Revolver' is rhythmically interesting and has a beckoning quality. The upbeat and poppy 'Honey Child What Can I Do' is easily the closest thing to Campbell's old band Belle & Sebastian here, and ranks with some of their best offerings. There's a mystical, foggy, ethereal quality to the string-adorned 'The False Husband' and Campbell-led tracks 'Black Mountain' and 'Saturday's Gone', while the title track is spaced-out blues. Only 'Do You Wanna Come Walk With Me', a purely acoustic ditty with an incredibly simple chorus, is a little disappointing. A subtle and special record.

Who would have thought that a rising scottish singer would team up with a lost Seattle grunge legend to make a country blues record but it happened and Im glad it did. Isobel Campbell soft almost childlike voice strangley blends perfectly with Mark Lanegans rapsy old country twang. Ballad Of The Broken Seas is a hauntingly beautiful collection of songs that keeps you wanting more. I wonder if they will duet again be interesting to see what direction they would go in. Great album

I dont know how anyone can get away with saying that this album is a waste of time. It is picture perfect representation of what happens when the sweetest of voices come together with one of the most chilling. Fantastic gems on this album include Revolver, the title track, and Deus Ibi Est, while of rest of the album fills in (but not "just filler") the cracks. The mix match of vocals have been an important aspect of some of the best collaborations in history. This is not the exception, this album follows the polar opposite duets of years past. I can see why people could write it off right away, but i think that if multiple listens occurred, a true music fan could understand the brilliance of the balance that these two give each other, with wonderful results.

I have to admit that I am more of a talk radio listener than a music listener and that the music I do listen to most often are the blues.......and men with gravely voices. Saying all that, I heard excerpts from this album on NPR last Saturday, and bought the CD the same day. I have not been disappointed. I had never before heard either Isobel Campbell or Mark Lanegan, but I am now a fan of both and plan to purchase more CDs by each of them to see if what I appreciate about this endeavor is indicative of their usual efforts.
The only flaw i could find is one trite cliche that jumped out at me in the song, "Ballad of the Broken Seas" ("Out of the frying pan into the fire"). That cliche brought me down to earth for a minute.........but the second time i listened i hardly noticed it. Not to attempt to be too poetic, but I found the rest of the CD to be a wonderful serendipitous olio that is a delight!
I love the contrast of the serious, mysterious "Revolver", and then the next track "Ramblin' Man" that had me movin' and groovin'.
The songs may seem to be uneven sometimes, but I find Mark Lanegan's very masculine voice combined with Isobel Campbell's delicate feminine voice both charming and intriguing and they make it all fit together.

The best way to talk about this album is the images it conjures up. It makes me want sit in the dark, drinking whiskey straight from the bottle, smoking a million cigarettes and thinking about how my baby is dead and gone. It's cheap motels and clandestine affairs, sin and salvation, disinterest and passion, joy and regret. Needless to say, it's good.