Screaming Trees
Dust

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.