Mark Lanegan – Blues Funeral
4AD
If Mark Lanegan’s Taylor/Burton-esque love affair with horse is off at the moment, then it’s certainly not made his disposition any sunnier. Blues Funeral is as bleak as the title is emphatic. “If tears were liquor, I would have drunk myself sick,” he growls on ‘St Louis Elegy’, and if it wasn’t delivered with such conviction one might find it all a bit hackneyed. Few new ideas are explored, though when your most enduringly recognisable motif is being Mark Lanegan, then it’s just about forgivable. There are some sections of the press that would have you believe this record is his masterpiece. They should get out more, starting with the National Gallery.
