Bubblegum
Mark Lanegan
Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan, PJ Harvey
Producer: Mark Lanegan, Chris Goss, Alain Johannes
Beggars Banquet (USA), 2004
1 CD
Catalogue #: 802372
EAN: 0607618023720
UPC: 607618023720
You save: 20%
Personnel: Chris Goss (guitar); Wendy Rae Fowler (piano); David Catching (organ); Molly McGuire (bass guitar); Tracy Chisholm (tapes); Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin, Mark Lanegan, Aldo Struyf.
In between the release of FIELD SONGS and its follow-up, BUBBLEGUM, former Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan sang for hard-rock heroes both old (a reunited MC5) and new (Queens of the Stone Age), gaining both fans and famous friends in the process. Thus, all eyes were on Lanegan for BUBBLEGUM, which features guest shots by everyone from PJ Harvey and Queens leader Josh Homme to Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses. Fortunately, all this attention doesn't seem to have fazed the sandpaper-voiced singer; despite the guest list, BUBBLEGUM is as dirty, gritty, and raw as anything in his catalog.
While much of Lanegan's previous solo work is a mix of languid folk-rock, gutter blues, and the kind of grunge-mutated 1960s-psych influences that powered the Screaming Trees, BUBBLEGUM is lean, angular, and occasionally almost avant-garde. Simple, driving, Stooges-like riffs and rhythms abet minimalistic organ lines, heavily treated vocals, and a somewhat industrial tonal aesthetic. Notorious substance-abuser Lanegan's post-rehab lyrics are no less ominous or emotionally harrowing for their expanded perspective, and he remains a challenging singer/songwriter eager to explore new sonic avenues.
Tracklist
Mark Lanegan
While rock music is the domain of adolescents (real and imagined), Mark Lanegan's deep, whiskey-rough voice has always conveyed an air of menacing adulthood and troubled sophistication. He made a name for himself as the lead singer of Seattle grunge pioneers Screaming Trees, but even before their 1997 split, was releasing critically acclaimed solo albums, beginning with 1990's THE WINDING SHEET. Lanegan has focused his solo efforts on the rootsier end of the spectrum, writing and covering R&B, blues, and folk songs. He has also sung with riff-rockers Queens of the Stone Age, and duetted memorably with Scottish chanteuse Isobel Campbell.
PJ Harvey
In the early 1990s, Polly Jean Harvey's music was a bracing post-punk battle cry, staking out new territory for alt-rock artists; Her iconic debut DRY and its equally heralded follow-up RID OF ME retained the raw, angular, and highly political nature of acts like Gang of Four but laced the anger with echoes of the lonely melancholia of early rock'n'roll. Over time, the subtle and moody side of Harvey has prevailed as she embraced . Her 2001 album STORIES FROM THE CITY, STORIES FROM THE SEA was her poppiest to date, with a heady mix of trip-hop, guitar rock, and troubadourism. Throughout, the aughts, Harvey continued to shift gears to critics' delight, from the sparse UH HUH HER to the arty piano rock of WHITE CHALK.
