Emerging from the American Northwest’s alongside others in the Seattle grunge scene, the Screaming Trees never had the commercial success of many of their peers. Yet they released at least once magnificent album, Sweet Oblivion (1992), and launched the solo career of the charismatic, problematic Mark Lanegan, whose soulful, world-weary, husky voice could be as intoxicating as the substances he all-too-frequently consumed.
Playlist 1: Screaming Trees
The first place your average U.S. listener of the early ‘90s probably heard Mark Lanegan was in his band the Screaming Trees, and that’s where any reasonable dive into the self-destructive, bruised yet alluring psyche of Mark Lanegan should begin. Here’s a sampling of their two best albums. Lanegan’s buzzing voice sounds just perfect atop all those swirling guitars. Powerful stuff.
Playlist 2: Solo Work
Even before the Trees began stalling, Lanegan had begun a solo career. In contrast to the charged, neo-psychedelic alt-rock of the Screaming Trees, his low-key solo efforts venture into the singer-songwriter realm, earning justified comparisons to Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, among others. Here’s a sampling from his first five albums, spanning 1990-2001, starting and ending with the two best of them, Whiskey for the Holy Ghost (1994) and Field Songs (2001). The playlist is a touch longer than my typical CD-length. I didn’t want to cut any more.
Playlist 3: Bubblegum, plus
Lanegan’s career probably peaked with the release of his sixth album, Bubblegum (2004). Certainly it’s the album that best captures his struggles with substance abuse: “When I’m bombed, I stretch like bubblegum / And look too long straight at the morning sun.” That title track features some stellar backing vocals from his soon-to-be-ex-wife Wendy Rae Fowler, whose accompaniment is gloriously out of sync. I wouldn’t trade the song “Strange Religion” for many a prominent singer-songwriter’s entire careers.
Playlist Three features most of Bubblegum, plus a few tracks from the Here Comes that Weird Chill EP (2003), recorded around the same time. Most of my favorite tracks appear on the back half of the playlist.
Playlist 4:With Isobel Campbell
The pairing of Mark Lanegan with former Belle and Sebastian side vocalist Isobel Campbell seemed an unusual match at first. It is strange in many ways, starting with the apparent difference in musical styles and attitudes. Second, it was strange in that Campbell wrote almost all the material and merely enlisted Lanegan as a pretty voice to deliver her message. After decades of male pop songwriters recruiting the next new bimbo to deliver their lyrics, here was a curious role reversal. (Campbell sings a few songs here and there, but the airy voice she delivers them in makes them makes them feel a little lightweight.) And it was also strange how natural the collaboration sounded when you actually listened to it.
It’s a pairing that had its limitations (as do they all), but there’s enough good stuff in their three albums together to make a nice playlist. So here you have it.
More Lanegan
I had planned another playlist or two of Lanegan’s other more notable collaborations—with Queens of the Stone Age, Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs, multi-instrumentalist Duke Garwood, and the electronic music act Soulsavers, among others. But I think you have enough Lanegan for now. Some other time, perhaps.
Cover Art:
- Bubblegum (front cover and inner sleeve): Source, Discogs.com, Fair use.
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