Mark Lanegan albums
Mark Lanegan had a separate career of solo works along side his grunge band Screaming Trees run of albums. Through his solo works, Lanegan let loose all his demons on topics of addiction and sorrow but all the while creating sinister atmospheres and melodies that sounded hopeful and memorable. He later experimented with drum machines and became somewhat of a lo-fi representative in that field. On stage he did not like to move from the microphone stand, though through his still presence he got all the power of his soulful voice across with a band behind him that could do it all, loud arena rock before there was even a style called “grunge” or synth rock to sooth the soul. Beyond his main group, Lanegan had multiple appearances in Mad Season, Queens of the Stone Age and The Gutter Twins and many collaborations with female singer songwriters ranging from Neko Case to Isobel Campbell We lost him sadly during the Covid-19 pandemic, but his music lives on with more depth then most can imagine and many unique creations along the way. He sounds like no one before, although many try to copy his style and his influence resonates strongly in rock music today.
Biggest Influences
Leonard Cohen, Leadbelly, Tom Waits, Gun Club, Nick Drake, Nick Cave, The Doors, Roy Orbison
Best Album
The Winding Sheet
Albums Chronologically:
1990 – 94% - The Winding Sheet
1994 – 85% - Whiskey for the Holy Ghost
1998 – 86% - Scrap at Midnight
2001 – 91% - Field Songs
2004 – 73% - Bubblegum
2012 – 87% - Blues Funeral
1990
The Winding Sheet - 94%
The first album by Screaming trees front man Mark Lanegan was produced before the band had a huge hit under their belt. The atmosphere where is much more folk confessional, there isn’t a drum or percussion on most tracks. Even still, these songs groove and ebb and flow based of off Lanegan’s huge emotional presence. His band consists of Mike Johnson of Dinosaur Jr., Steve Fisk on keys, Mark Pickerel on Drums from Screaming Trees, but still the whole thing is very minimal. “Undertow” incorporates violins along with Lanegan’s punishing baritones narrates a story. “Mockingbirds” opens with a guitar riff lie no other, distorted but laid back, the song is one of my favorite album openers ever. “Wild Flowers” is perhaps the best track, which is just Mark L and a guitar, reaching the falsetto on the chorus that second and third time, it is a song that inspire a simple tune on a acoustic guitar can actually work. “Ugly Sunday” and “Eyes of a Child” are similar dirges that are very melodic but also very dour in their atmosphere; title track “The Winding Sheet” is the ultimate dirge, five plus minute of existential yearning with psychedelic guitar background, similar to something Bob Mould did with “Hanging Tree” off his Black Sheets of Rain (1989) album the year prior .
Elsewhere Lanegan and his cohorts do rock out, “Down in the dark” could have been on a Screaming Trees album, perhaps Lanegan was just saving it in secret for his own personal spin; either way it’s a prime grunge rock anthem before that type of song became popular. The cover of Leadbelly’s tune “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” is famous for being tossed around the Seattle music circle, this being the established cover and featuring Krist Novoselic on bass and Kurt Cobain on guitar and background vocals, later made more famous by Nirvana’s cover on their MTV Unplugged album. There are so many wonders o this record and not really a song I would skip on the whole thing, including the drug laden tale in the short “Juarez” (his attempt at humor, what do ya know, it’s dark!), the sweet anti-gun parable of “Woe”, or the touching closer “I Love You Little Girl. Through this established medium of acoustic instruments Lanegan creates on of the all time create folk rock records, where confessional tales meet memorable melodies. It has never quite been equaled in his discography.
Best Songs: Wild Flowers, Mockingbirds, Down in the Dark, the Winding Sheet
1994
Whiskey for the Holy Ghost - 85%
Released on January 10th 1994, (but recorded sporadically the three year’s before) this was Lanegan’s first solo record after his large success with 199’2 Sweet Oblivion Screaming Trees record. To quote his track “Borracho”, that gave him more production freedom and also more money for harder substances. The forementioned track has a massive crescendo in it and completely washes away the listener in waves of hard alcohol until they are in a translucent stupor. That is the rock n roll side of Mark L, and it rears its head again in “Beggar’s Blues” a song worthy of its title featuring a pounding bass track. “Pendulum” is a nice, groove rock shuffle that is hard to pin down- sweet accompaniment with foreboding vocals.
For the most part though this is again sublime folk rock with acoustic instruments and the occasional drums. “House is a Home” is like Grunges version of Crosby Still Nash and Young’s “Our House”, sweet melodies abound. “River Rise” and “Carnival” are more of his winding, haunting stories, where as the six minute “Riding the Nightingale” is a success at a song that reaches new areas of the human psyche, kind of like a therapist session put to music with it’s call and answer premises and female vocal background from Sally Berry. “Shooting Gallery” despite its title, is one of the sweetest tunes he ever pinned. At 50 minutes, Lanegan could have trimmed a song or two, perhaps “El Sol” and “Kingdom’s of Rain” is to much of the same. In all though, it’s a worthy follow up to the debut even though it doesn’t change things too much. You don’t need to if everything still works!
Best Songs: House A Home, Borracho, Pendulum, Riding the Nightingale
1998
Scraps at Midnight – 86%
On his 3rd album, Lanegan double downs on what made his first two records work. “Hospital Roll Call” is mostly instrumental, recalling Roy Orbison lost in the American southwest which reverbed guitars. “Praying Ground” follows suit as a haunting ballad, and “Last One in the World” is a song about a friend who has spiraled out on drug addiction and is not the person they used to be. “Stay” brings him closer to alternative country, something a band like Wilco or Steve Earle might do, I’m surprised someone hasn’t covered this these days and made it a bigger hit. Only a couple of tracks don’t work for me, “Bell Black Ocean” and “Day and Night” are sort of generic fodder.
But the most exciting thing about this record is the ways Lanegan expands his sound. You have the forementioned twangy guitars on several track, but also a huge middle-eastern influence on the eight-minute “Because of this”, one the greatest trance induing songs he ever pinned; it is almost impossible not to be sucked in to this songs atmosphere. The woodwind section jumps out on the lovely “Wheels”. With songs like this, Lanegan proves he can master any type of style with his backing band, especially the accompaniment of Mike Johnson who contributes songwriting on several tracks. He could keep putting out records like this and it would never get old to me, a true genius of songcraft.
Best Songs: Because of this, Stay, Wheels, Praying Ground
1999
I’ll Take Care OF You – n/a
- This is a covers record
2001
Field Songs – 91%
“The Stars and the Moon are where they are supposed to be” Lanegan grumbles an growls on the album’s opening track “One Way Street”, only in a way he could make this sound less like an observation and more of a prophecy. Lanegan comes off like Tom Waits with prettier melodies on his 4th record, the best one he has made since his Debut and masterwork The Winding Sheet. It is more of the same, but the man/legend seems more road weary, more careful and poetic about what he is saying here. “Kimiko’s Dream House”, co-written by Gun Club’s Jeffery Lee Pearce, is perhaps the best song he ever sang. The melody is something from a comforting dream, and the emotion is which Lanegan switches from pondering to reflection is pure beauty. Shorter interludes like “She Done Too Much” and “Miracle” shine as brief, catchy interludes.
This is also maybe his most consistent album; I don’t think there is a song I don’t skip. While the overall atmosphere is heavier than anything he has done before on songs such as “No Easy Action”, with a sort of Native American chanting as background. “Pine Hill Serenade” and “Resurrection Song” are fun little waltzes, perfectly crafted and easy to listen to. “Low” is typical Lanegan ballad but there is nothing wrong with that, this guy knows how to made a moody ballad! “Fix”, the typical epic closer on his albums, is either about addiction or a relationship, its left open to interpretation (maybe both?). His style of Blues and folk really reaches an apex here, even if there may not be the high’s of the single masterworks on the debut this is a new start for him, something for the 21st century to build off of for those who love listening to good albums and are patient listeners.
Best Songs: Kimiko’s Dream House, Fix, One Way street, Pine Hill Serenade
2004
Bubblegum - 73%
Lanegan’s most popular release, but one of the albums I actually listened to last so it’s never been my go to. It is more accessible and easier to enjoy than some of his others, possibly influenced by his time and success as an occasional member of Queens of the Stone Age on albums Rated R (2000) and the immensely successful Songs for the Deaf (2002); it’s also his longest by far at fifteen songs. “Hit the City” and “Come to Me” carry that collaborative vibe over, both songs featuring P.J. Harvey on background vocals. Even better is one of his best hard rock songs ever as a solo artist, “Methamphetamine Blues”, a topic he knows much about and as always a strange counterpart to his more stark, soulful dirges like “One Hundred Days” which finds him in a prophetic mode somewhere between the dread of Leonard Cohen and the deranged sound of Jeffery Lee Pierce (perhaps his biggest influence here- see The Gun Club’s “She’s Like Heroin to Me” or “Brother and Sister”). See also “Can’t Come Down” for psychedelic sound effects.
Whatever his strategy is, this is probably an easy entry to Lanegan but I would also say, none of his other stuff is that impenetrable; Lanegan is pretty easy to listen to with a voice that at times sounds world-weary but also often hopeful and friendly. As always, it’s a consistent listen even if the only thing that seems different about this album is more guest star vocalists. I wouldn’t say every song works as well as his previous records, where a song like “Sideways in Reverse” might be trying too hard to please the alt-rock audience and “Head” and “Morning Glory Whine” are mere filler and his other records before this didn’t have that to me; it feels as though Lanegan just came out with every idea he had this time around, with not as much editing; one can sense the first half of the album is stronger. Still, Bubblegum is an apt title and a good idea if you want more listeners- Mark Lanegan ain’t a sell out in any way, he is one of the most genuine and amazing songwriters ever, so he deserves a win in anyway he can get it!
Best Songs: Methamphetamine Blues, One Hundred Days, Hit the City, Can’t Come Down
2012
Blues Funeral – 87%
When Mark Lanegan is on, he is ON man. This album is one example of this among many of his others (The Winding Sheet, Whiskey for the Holy Ghost, Field Songs), and this is Lanegan at his most experimental. He covers a plethora of rock music genres: "Riot in my House" and "Quiver Syndrome" are pulsating tracks that sound like they could be coming from the Rolling Stones themselves; "Gray Goes Black" and "Ode to Sad Disco" are dance rock at its best, the latter hilariously spoofing disco; "Bleeding Muddy Water" and "St. Louis Elegy" are grieving blues at its best for those who have never been moved by a blues song before; "Phantasmagoria Blues" and "Harborview Hospital" are the traditional ballads, minus the guitar of old and replacing with keyboards. The whole album has a lo-fi self-produced feel that totally works (it was produced by Alain Johannes)
In fact, all of the instruments favor digital and modern age touches which is a nice change of pace from the former master of acoustic instruments like Lanegan was in the 1990's and early 2000’s. I would almost describe this as Lanegan's most accessible album as well, as the opening track "Gravedigger's Song" is the closest thing to a defining song he has ever done: the gravel of Tom Waits meets the raw blues of Morphine with the drive of a modern Jim Morrison. Ditto for closer "Tiny Grain of Truth", where Lanegan dubs himself the 'shadow king' of the 2010's and I couldn't agree more. This was Lanegan’s first release since 2004’s Bubblegum and it showed in the strength of the material; there is not a bad track on the whole thing.
Best Tracks: Gravediggers Song, Quiver Syndrome, Phantasmagoria Blues, Riot In My House
Sidenote: Nothing Mark Lanegan did after this album has stood out too much to me, as he seemed to get more prolific and less consistent. Someday I may come back and review them, i believe there are about 5 more albums…