Mark Lanegan: Blues Funeral (2LP) [4AD]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set comes in a gatefold jacket with a download card. Blues Funeral was Lanegan's first new solo material in eight years, it charted in six countries in its first week, and he named it the one album he'd choose to play live.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Gatefold jacket
• Download card included

About the album

Mark Lanegan had the kind of voice that sounds like it has been aged in an oak barrel, and after years lending it to Isobel Campbell, Soulsavers and The Gutter Twins, he finally brought it home. He started writing at the end of the Hawk tour in late 2010, this time on keyboards and a drum machine as well as guitar, and made the record with producer Alain Johannes through early 2011.

Greg Dulli, David Catching and Jack Irons pitch in, and the sound mixes sequenced beats with cinematic sweep. Lanegan named The Gun Club's Miami, Joy Division's Closer and Roxy Music's Country Life as touchstones. "The Gravedigger's Song" finally clicked once it borrowed a drumbeat from an Adam Ant song, "Riot in My House" nods to Sweden's The Leather Nun, and "Ode to Sad Disco" takes its cue from Nicolas Winding Refn's Pusher films.

Critics loved it, and The Quietus heard an artist refusing to paint himself into a corner. It takes a singer like Lanegan to make a song called "Ode to Sad Disco" sound like the best night out you've had in years.

Also at Kops: more Mark Lanegan on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On 4AD (cat# CAD 3202), the 2012 album.