It’s freezing cold.  I have a sort of flu that is making my face ache.  I haven’t written a review for ages.  I’m not even sure I remember where to start.  There are many more pressing things that ought to be getting my full attention.  And yet, and yet - I just cannot get this one damn song off repeat.  After that, it’s the whole album.  Third time through I think, I really ought to do something about this.  And so, here it is.  I’m a bit rusty, please bear with me.

Mark Lanegan, it would seem, is someone with an extensive back catalogue that I quite freely admit to knowing absolutely nothing about.  I’ve heard this one song of his [well, it isn’t even one of his, it’s a cover of the Bob Dylan song Man In The Long Black Coat] and at the time I thought of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds but with a really amazing and - I’ll just come straight out and say it - rather sexy voice.  Gravely, deep, dark, brooding, slightly ominous – all those ‘American Gothic’ style checkpoints covered.  I loved it, but for some reason never followed it up by investigating further.

The Mark Lanegan Band’s new album Blues Funeral has therefore hit me with no frame of reference to place it against.  Scouting through other people’s reviews however, it would appear that this latest offering is considered to be his most “accessible” to date.  The song I can’t stop playing is the opening track The Gravedigger’s Song.  It emanates an air of menace without ever [in the way that I never quite got Grinderman] becoming difficult to listen to.  An insistent, rolling drumbeat gives the track an irresistible momentum.  There is lots of distortion, yes, but also an incredible melody.  The combination is instantly addictive.  The song hooks you and doesn’t let go until the last moment – a sure recipe for “repeater” status for me.  The video is genuinely creepy. (See Below)

After listening to this one song maybe 10 or 15 times, I eventually decided that now was the time to listen further.  The second track, Bleeding Muddy Water is a slower, more blues informed offering.  There is a very genuine quality to the music and performance that make it stand out.  The third track Grey Goes Black reminded me of Chris Isaak for some reason, but with a more modern edge.  It feels like the drums are edging towards a kind of drum and bass rhythm. [Either that, or I actually have a brain fever.]  The following tracks adhere to the same kind of patterns – bluesy, dark, and lyrically intense.  Track six, Ode To Sad Disco skits humorously around the disco genre, but it made me think of some of the later offerings from REM – or at least how they should have sounded.  One of my other favourite tracks is called Harborview Hospital and it sounds like an unlikely cross between The National and one of those White Lies or Editors type bands that seem to be all over the place now.  But it is much better than that makes it sound.  In fact, I suggest you just have a listen yourself.