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Rating:
I admit it: I know very little about Mark Lanegan as a musician. I'm familiar with his guest appearances on the albums of Queens Of The Stone Age, and indeed, his tracks are among the best ever recorded by that highly talented band… However, to be fair, "Dust" is actually my first album-experience concerning Our Man and more broadly the Screaming Trees. Thus, I will dive straight into the core of the album I am reviewing here: "Dust" is truly a small gem, an engaging and well-packaged hard rock marvel, with that "existential" touch that Lanegan brings to his compositions making all the difference.
Accompanied by brothers Van and Gary Lee Conner (bass and guitar respectively) and drummer Barrett Martin, the Seattle band embarks on a hard-folk-psychedelic excursion of rare power: every sound, melody, and beat seem to blend perfectly with Lanegan’s warm and raspy voice and his desolate tales of loneliness and alienation, creating songs that invite sing-alongs despite tackling unsettling themes. It’s imagination that takes the lead: the single is "All I Know", a powerful and enormously catchy blues-rock tinged with melancholy, while "Dying Days" fuses their more driving soul with a rustic and sunny folk-country vein. "Look At You" is full of romance but walks with downcast eyes, a bitter ballad imbued with regret. The guys even dive into almost raga-flavored psychedelic rock rides as in "Halo Of Ashes" (perfect as an opener) and "Dime Western", while in "Traveler" they indulge in Beatlesque guitar and synth harmonies, crafting a surreal and colorful ballad.
The group moves with frightening naturalness, scattering quotes, building varied and enveloping atmospheres, stirring emotions with immediate and harmonious choruses: the mood of the lyrics, depressed and despondent, is thus redeemed by the quality and vibrations emanating from the music, and in fact, "Dust" is hardly related to the pantheon of grunge that was breathing its last breaths at that time; it indeed has nothing of Nirvana’s fierce and cancerous introversion nor the gloomy dramaturgy of Alice In Chains. If anything, the band recalls Cream, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull and Beatles without ever resorting to low-grade copying. Here lies the charm of "Dust": the four from Seattle produce existential music redeemed by its own nature, suffering and catharsis blend and give life to these vibrant and emotion-laden hard anthems.
I think it is indeed time for a nice retrospective listening session... meanwhile, I recommend a taste of this "dust". It goes straight to the brain, but it doesn't kill you. On the contrary, it makes you levitate. And life gradually becomes a little lighter.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
02 All I Know (03:55)
Bite the thorn that pierce the skin
Come back down to earth again
The cold is creeping deep inside
You disconnect the telephone line
Gotta get away
Gotta get away
Get away
Gotta get away
'fore the Lord gonna make me stay
All that I know
Shoulda been
Coulda been
Mine
I killed the last way out of this
Persuaded by a deceitful kiss
That said you better stay
Said you better stay
Better stay
Said you better stay
'fore it's all gone
Gone away
All that I know...(repeat)
Bite the thorn that pierce the skin
Come back down to earth again
The cold is creeping deep inside
You disconnect the telephone line
Gotta get away....
'fore i lose my mind
Said you better stay...
'fore it's all gone
Gone away
All that I know...(repeat)
06 Sworn and Broken (03:34)
Winter's setting in again
And it feels
Like the end is near
Senseless sense and I'm alone
Watching' the seconds
Passing' by
Come January I swear this world
Won't be the one
That we once lived on
Took an oath
For a promise sworn and broken
All that's gone
Away
When Monday morning you can't wake up
Still dreaming' of
What could've been
Something good has gone and left you
It's another tear
One won't deny
Come January I swear this world
Won't be the one
That we once lived on
Took an oath
Another promise sworn and broken
All that's gone
All that's gone before you've changed
Well Monday morning you don't wake up
Still dreaming' of
What could've been
Something good has gone and left you
It's another tear
One more denial
Come January I swear this world
Won't be the one
That we once lived on
Took an oath
Another promise sworn and broken
All that's gone
All that's gone before
All that's gone before
Has changed
09 Dime Western (03:39)
Born to work under the way your velvet lies
Smoke and fog, getting hazy in the sky, arise
I've been where you've never been
I've seen what you never seen
I've dreamed what you never dream
I've left what you never leave
But now I can only find one way to take me higher
Rays of shattered light to clean my eyes
This spark just burns away until I'm blind inside
I've seen what you never seen
I've been where you've never been
I've dreamed what you never dream
I've left what you never leave
But now I can only find one way to take me higher
There's only a reflection left to hide
Once you know the aim, I told you it's still mine
I've seen what you never seen
I've been where you've never been
I've left what you never leave
I've dreamed what you've never dreamed
But now I can only find one way to take me higher
But now I can only find one way
Take me higher, take me higher, take me higher
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