Personnel: Isobel Campbell (vocals, cello, piano, harpsichord, glockenspiel, tubular bells); Isobel Campbell (various instruments); Jim McCulloch, Jimmy McCulloch (guitar); Joshua Blanchard (acoustic guitar); Helen Thompson (harp); John McCusker, Claire Campbell (violin); Ross Hamilton (double bass, upright bass, bass guitar); Norm Block, Alyn Cosker (drums); Mark Lanegan (vocals); David Robertson (congas, bodhran, percussion).
Audio Mixers: Isobel Campbell; Dave Paterson.
Photographer: Autumn DeWilde.
The inspired pairing of sweetie-pie (and former Belle & Sebastian chanteuse) Isobel Campbell with brooding ex-Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan has borne one excellent four-song EP (2005's RAMBLIN' MAN) and this full-length collection that includes those four plus eight others. As if to defy all the "Hazlewood/Sinatra" comparisons thrown at the EP, the pair bravely opens the album with their most unsettling and decidedly un-poppy song, "Deus Ibi Est," a Celtic-sounding march laced with Latin lyrics and a heavily religious theme, with vocal performances pitched somewhere between the Wicked Witch's guards and a bevy of singing nuns. From there, a variety of styles and approaches keeps things lively. The haunting folk ballad "Black Mountain" showcases Campbell's chiming voice, while the atmospheric "Saturday's Gone" makes for some rainy-day Gainsbourgian noir. As the main songwriter, this is mostly Campbell's show, but Lanegan's Marlboro-seasoned voice lends just the right valence to all the airy prettiness. minimize