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Rating: Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan are the most unusual (artistic) couple in the world. They remind me of all the historical mythology linked to the electrifying clash between impossible personalities, like King Kong and Fay Wray, Omar Sivori and John Charles, Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow, Totò and Peppino. The sun and the moon, opposite poles that mutually attract in the angelic chirping of the former Belle And Sebastian and in the baritone abyss of the fire-spitting ogre Lanegan. A beautiful (equal) battle between angels and demons, no doubt about it; looking at the promotional photos and then listening to them sing together is always a strange thing, like understanding that Minnie betrayed that boring bourgeois Mickey Mouse by running away with Pete. Life is a jar of Pringles with some curious surprises, if it wishes to be.
The Beauty Isobel and the Beast Mark return with a new work titled "Sunday At Devil Dirt," following the inconsistent debut of 2006's "Ballad Of The Broken Seas". Well, this time the two lovebirds seem truly armed with a shotgun (and the frequently Frontiera West sound environment helps), they don't miss the target (which is us) and kill with regular precision the good forty-five minutes of the twelve murder ballads (written, incidentally, by the lovely Scottish blonde). "Sunday At Devil Dirt" is certainly a more focused and defined album than the previous one, varied in its noble references and embellished by good writing that reveals Campbell as an excellent author, far from a mere sideman. On his part, the Stray in Black contributes the proverbial tar in his throat (indeed never so deep and Luciferian) and we could already bet, from now, that this second liaison of theirs turns out to be the best discographic release for the man from Ellensburg since "Bubblegum". As certain as the increase in the cost of a barrel of oil tomorrow afternoon. And Mark has practically collaborated with everyone in recent years, maybe only Timbaland and my cousin who plays at weddings are left.
The opening of "Seafaring Song" is enlightening, Lanegan leading the dance from the underworld with words of mud and dust, while Campbell's sweet counterpoint embroiders on sin and redemption. "The Raven" meets the gaze of Claudia Cardinale and Harmonica, a fiery and Morriconian ballad, a spaghetti-western idyll that copulates Leonard Cohen with Nancy Sinatra. The unshakeable darkness of the author of "Field Songs" disperses in the remarkable folk-blues "Salvation", the shadows are almost a memory of the Great Depression, seemingly dissolving in the dim light vocal counterpoints of the virginal Isobel. The noir atmosphere of a murder ballad returns, a bit Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue: here come the strings and languid melodies in "Who Built The Road", small notes of electric and a drum chasing moans in the spy-story soul "Come On Over (Turn Me On)". The primitive "Back Burner" is an ancestral call to Africa, the shamanic Lanegan a black river breaking its banks after a night of biblical rain. Great track, marimbas and heavenly choirs around the murky declamation of Our storyteller, rusty voice in a call & response reminiscent of Tom Waits.. In the tail end, an unexpectedly lounge piano: I don't find it hard to imagine the good Mark pressing that horn, and waiting in the car for sweet Isobel to come out of the house.
The mischievous lolita-like singing of the latter moistens the old crackling vinyl of "Shot Gun Blues", a torrid stomp homage to dirty stories of sex and sweat from the Southern United States. "The Flame That Burns" is a looking into each other's eyes before everything goes to hell, "La Rabbia Giovane" of Kit and Holly in a nostalgic, desperate sentimental duet. Hopes and passions lost along the way, in the sunset horizon of the beautiful acoustic chimes of "Something To Believe". Will a third child from the (musical) relationship between Campbell & Lanegan, the Bonnie and Clyde of songwriter rock, arrive? The important thing is not to lose sight of the path, to continue on the main road hand in hand and hope. Because sometimes "Dio li fa e poi li accoppa".
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