Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanagan “Honey Child What Can I Do?”
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
A listen to Isobel Campbell’s 2003 solo debut Amorino provides stark evidence that as pretty as her voice may be, it’s best employed as a contrast or complement to another–preferably one with some gravity. Otherwise, it just floats away, pleasant but unmemorable. Her give and take with Stuart Murdoch on Fold Your Hands Child’s “Women’s Realm”, still my favorite Belle and Sebastian song, was pure bliss. But it was that album’s Nancy and Lee paean “Beyond the Sunrise” that best employed Campbell’s ethereal wisp of a voice, in stark contrast to her almost comically baritoned male counterpart. Ballad of the Broken Seastakes that dialectic to its extreme, pairing Campbell with the smoky growl of the Cro-Magnon Mark Lanegan, often to good result. It’s a dusty, modest and folky album, highlighted by the light, string-flecked “Honey Child What Can I Do?” (mp3).
Ballad of the Broken Seas is scheduled to drop on V2 in February 2006. In the meantime, read some typical NME bluster on it here.