Mark Lanegan
I'll Take Care Of You

THE REVIEW

THIS IS NOT THE WHITE ALBUM!

A necessary preface because the postman delivered an envelope with 4 bullets and a letter with the writing "All You Need Is Love!".

But let's move on to this nice little disc.

Who among you was around when grunge exploded in the early '90s? I was about 15 years old and even then I didn't think this was a "genre" of music. It was more an attitude, a way of being (what did an album like Ten have to do musically with Dirt by Alice In Chains?). 

In any case, one day with the checkered flannel shirt and the new jeans just ripped with grandma's scissors (how mad she got poor thing) I went with a friend to our trusted record store, those from Bologna will remember Nannucci downtown... "Do you know the Screaming Trees? A singer with real guts!" I didn't know them and I got "Sweet Oblivion", I remember I memorized the first track "Shadow Of The Season" and indeed that voice struck me immediately...

Then you grow up, musical tastes change, you're on the lookout for new stuff to listen to and I lost track of that band... and that great voice.

Now, after about twenty years, I find myself holding this "I'll Take Care Of You" and I must say that our Mark Lanegan is like a good whiskey: the older it gets, the better it is!

While for me "Whiskey For The Holy Ghost" remains his best work, this album stands apart because here there are "only" covers.... But interpreted wonderfully, by that voice that has always had real guts.

Classics of the American song are taken here, reshaped and injected with a new soul, with a bluesy flavor and strong alcoholic/tobacco hues for which our guy has always been famous.

"Ba-dida" by Fred Neil is, if possible, even more beautiful than the original, "Carry Home" by Gun Club is transformed and seems written by him... In short, make this nice CD your own, listen to it in the car preferably during a nice night drive, and you'll discover that grunge, once the checkered shirts have been returned to the cleaners and the rips in the jeans sewn up, has left us with a great crooner, perhaps the greatest around today!

P.S. along with the White Album, the best pristine and untouched cover you can find in a record store! (Peace has been made... no more threatening letters or I'll have to change my address!).