Mark Lanegan: Gray goes black

Mark Lanegan. Photo / Supplied

Mark Lanegan has long been one of the most magnetic and mercurial rock vocalists. Blues Funeral, his first solo album in eight years, could be his best work yet.

One listen to Blues Funeral would be evidence enough to the casual listener that Mark Lanegan has learned his lessons hard.

Although the ex-Screaming Trees vocalist's seventh solo effort paints a richly detailed sonic world, it's saturated with enough deeply felt gloom to drown several generations of blues aficionados.

But there's enough nuance and humanity involved to not have all-comers instantly reaching for the razorblade.

In that respect Blues Funeral is like a conversation with Washington State native Lanegan: the granite exterior betrays a depth and complexity that is ultimately disarming.

"Some guys come fully formed and completely realised, and are great from the beginning," he suggests. "And other people have to learn it. So in my case it definitely had to be learned. And I'm still learning; hopefully I'm learning until I'm done."
One thing the 47-year old says he's learned over a quarter-century of music is the art of letting go.

In the past, with Seattle band the Screaming Trees, with solo albums like 1994's Whisky for the Holy Ghost or 2004's Bubblegum, and numerous collaborations, that's been a problem.

"Part of the reason some of the records took me so long was because I had such trouble letting things go," Lanegan confesses. "On top of that I was constantly creating more things to not let go. And before I knew it I would have a mountain of shit to wade through to come to a conclusion."

That certainly hasn't been a problem with Blues Funeral. In collaboration with genius producer and multi-instrumentalist Alain Johannes, Lanegan quickly crafted the album into a thing of beauty over the early months of 2011 in Los Angeles.

He began the sessions with absolutely nothing, but through an intensive songwriting regimen and the guiding hand of Johannes filling in the details, the 12 songs emerged.

"I wouldn't call it intense but it's a lot of fun usually," Lanegan says. "Trying stuff and throwing ideas off each other and seeing if we like the way they work. It's one of the best things about making music is actually recording records, in my opinion. Because it's fun, it's supposed to be fun. It isn't always but in this case it was."

Blues Funeral includes sparse, sad songs like Phantasmagoria Blues and Deep Black Vanishing Train alongside less introverted rockers including Quiver Syndrome and Riot in My House.

But although the essentially blue heart of the album is communicated across various tempos, there's a sonic character that glues the whole thing together.

Thanks in part to Johannes, a textured electronic backdrop enhances Lanegan's many tales of despair. It serves to render Blues Funeral among the most beguiling of recent rock albums.

"The entire process for me is instinctual," Lanegan notes. "Once I started making it, one song might tell you what the next one's supposed to sound like. When I'm making a record I try to make it complete, have a beginning, middle and an end, and all the songs are like chapters. A few songs were actually written with the drum machine and synthesiser. I already liked the way they sounded so they were set in stone."

Blues Funeral has had a polarising affect on reviewers, with some loving it unequivocally while others have found its prevailing melancholy too much to stomach.

This critical division has been refreshing for Lanegan, who says negative feedback has rarely reached him in the past for whatever reason.

Which is not to say his career in music has been without incident; in the past he's been beset with drug and alcohol issues that have been resolved in recent years.

Lanegan says regardless of his circumstances, he's always derived enjoyment from the music.

"There have been times when I've wanted to take a break from it and I have," he says. "But I enjoy it. I don't know why but I've always been driven to do it. But I enjoy it so much I wouldn't want to stop."

Mark Lanegan Band plays The Powerstation in Auckland on Wednesday 18 April.

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