Blues Funeral

Lanegan goes solo again

In spite of the impressive and massive list of collaborations featuring the American singer and musician Mark Lanegan, a lot of listeners prefer to follow his solo career. Once the leader of Screaming Tress, Mark was highlighted working with Queens Of The Stone Age, UNKLE and some more prominent performers, which leads to an easy conclusion that he is terribly short of time for his solo project. Lanegan’s fresh long player, released by the Mark Lanegan Band under the eerie title Blues Funeral is his first solo work in eight years. There is no doubt a CD like that was destined to come sooner or later because only this work gives Mark complete freedom of self expression and allows him to follow nothing but his own music preferences. Blues Funeral is the record that shows how potent Lanegan the author is and how skillful he is as a performer.

Voice is the key

On the Blues Funeral album, Mark Lanegan’s signature sinister-like raspy voice is not a decorative element, noк is it an exotic insertion, but the core of the entire sound system here. Like no other voice, it serves as perfect channel to broadcast a great variety of stunning images which comes to life in the texts of these songs. Seemingly free from his addiction for heavy substances and alcohol, Lanegan, still, prefers to take a listener on a tour around the maze of someone’s gloomy subconscious and sick consciousness. The Gravedigger’s Song lets you know that the album has no sunshine or peace of mind to bring. The drum-machine boosts up the tension as its rhythms produce associations with approaching herd of wild horses or a mad train coming at you. Bleeding Muddy Water has a tempo abruptly turned down, but it does not make it any easier. The alarming electronic sounds and Mark’s manner to drag out words, like he is in delusion, have a very powerful effect. In the meantime, the song deals with the author’s typical issue of drinking.

Stylish work without shortcomings

Blues Funeral seems to be using any kind of instrument to back up Lanegan’s vocals, or almost any. Leviathan offers a chaotic organ part that sends shivers down your spine and makes you feel Mark has dragged his audience to someone’s funeral. Ode To Disco, all of a sudden, supplies a lot of nearly pure dance material with mighty beats borrowed from the German scene back from the nineties. Riot In My House, and Quiver Syndrome involve electric guitar, which easily makes these two the heaviest on the album. There might be a feeling that the instrumental content makes no difference for how you perceive Blues Funeral because of Lanegan’s dominating singing and the lyrics looking like confessions of mentally disturbed people. Truth be told, the musicians did a great job as they created an amazing soundtrack that would be a perfect match to any fine thriller. The absence of tangible hooks and catchy tunes is not the indication of the poor quality since the music here sounds to leave you worried and even nervous. As a result, Blues Funeral has an ideal harmony between the music, the vocals, and the lyrics. All these components form a mirror to give a clear reflection of Mark Lanegan’s original and attractive style.