Peak-a-boo!
A decade prior to the breakup of Screaming Trees in 2000, Mark Lanegan started releasing his crooner-soul-rock under his own name, working album by album to hone his skills and his voice and find the perfect match for both. As he approaches fifty years of age and prepares for the release of his ninth solo record, Phantom Radio in the fall, he is giving 1,500 fans a taste with the vinyl-only five-song EP, No Bells on Sunday, and it appears as though he may have overshot his target.
It’s one thing to walk the line between blues and grunge, between tears and balls, a distinction Lanegan has successfully blurred for years. But it’s another to venture into the world of electronica. With lead track, “Dry Iced,” the end result is refreshingly successful. It begins with some totally chill synth layers and minimal guitars. When Lanegan’s voice comes in, it’s hauntingly confident. He sounds less like an artist trying something new and more like someone who has owned everything and now needs to create new things. At times in his career, his voice has been among the coolest in music, and on this initial track it has never sounded cooler: smokey, rough, devastatingly calm.
“Sad Lover,” which will also appear on Phantom Radio, is the only up-tempo track, but it’s still far from anything Lanegan is known for. Sound loops intertwine with constant strumming backed by a minimal rhythm section. “Jonas Pap” recalls Leonard Cohen with its deep folkiness, stepping away from the template laid out by the first three numbers, but eight-plus minute finale “Smokestack Magic” brings the album to an epic close.
At times, Lanegan’s experiments come across as disingenuous, as if he’s jumping on a train that is approaching its final stop but pretending he was riding the entire time. The songs are indulgent despite their simplicity, almost sarcastically so. But for fans of Lanegan, No Bells on Sunday is proof that he has no limits, and there’s little he can’t do well. Non-record-player-owning fans (or record-player-owning fan number 1,501), fear not: these songs will accompany a deluxe edition of Phantom Radio in the fall.
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