ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN || Hawk

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
Hawk
Label:Vanguard
Released on: August 24th, 2010
Grade: 3.5 meatballs
By Neil Miller, Jr.

Three albums in, it’s still hard to get accustomed to how brilliant Mark Lanegan and Isobell Campbell sound together.  It’s either a pairing made in heaven or hell, it’s hard telling.  With their newest release, “Hawk,” all the evidence you need as to how well the duo compliments each other rests on this album.  With Mark Lanegan giving off his “I don’t give a fuck” vibe through his gruff vocals and Campbell sounding like a wounded angel, one would think the contrast would be too out there to accept.  Well, since Campbell is such a fantastic songwriter/composer, she crafts these songs with the disparity between their voices in mind.

‘Snake Song’ is an immediately noteworthy track off of “Hawk”.  This finds Lanegan baring his Desert Rock background and embracing Bluegrass at the same time with the use of a banjo.  Although this song is a cover (Townes van Zandt composed the original), it showcases the duo not only at their best, but also possibly at the darkest.  ‘Time of the Season’ invariably recalls old Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra duets – the tone of the song being upbeat at best, but once Lanegan shows up for the ride, it takes on a whole new life of its own.

One track that will surely shock listeners is the rampaging Blues-Rock title track.  It’s loud, it’s crass, and it’s absolutely self-indulgent – oh yeah, and it’s great too.  Strangely enough, it’s an instrumental too – but it gives another dimension to this unlikely pairing of artists that somehow makes total sense.  Once the title track reaches 90 mph, ‘Sunrise’ throws you out of the passenger door in the middle of a dark, Americana wasteland.  It’s a solo Campbell track, which means it’s potentially one of the best on the record as well.  Her voice may be syrupy sweet, but when she’s feeling low, the vocals she lays down transcend any boundaries she sets for herself on other tracks and ‘Sunrise’ has her sounding like she’s at the bottom.

In a series of off-the-cuff albums, ‘Hawk’ finds this strange twosome still breaking new ground in their music.  Touches of Gospel, Folk, Bluegrass, Grunge, Blues, and just about everything in between show up throughout the course of ‘Hawk,’ and although it shouldn’t make sense, Campbell and Lanegan sound anything but rough around the edges – they’re seasoned professionals and this record is proof that they can take their compositions in any direction and still make magic happen.  Fans of Belle and Sebastian (Campbell’s former day job) might find the record too dark and maybe even a bit draggy, but anyone who likes dark Americana music will find solace in this record.  So if you’re looking for that perfect ‘sit down and chill with a book on a Sunday afternoon’ record, or even that ‘drive through the country for hours an end’ kind of album, ‘Hawk’ will surely fulfill all your wants and needs.