Belle's new boy

(Morning Star, Friday 16 May 2008)

ALBUM: Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Sunday at Devil Dirt
(V2 Cooperative Music)

THE meeting of these two was well-discussed with their debut collaborative effort, Ballad of the Broken Seas (2006).

Sunday at Devil Dirt sees them back on top, with a darkly atmospheric collection of laments and sea shanties.

From laying with a "dark maiden" in Poe-esque The Raven to playing Campbell's "daddy" in the cheaply tawdry Shotgun Blues, Lanegan wears his "dastardly old dog" coat well.

But the real revelation here is Campbell, who achieved fame with Belle and Sebastian. She is a songwriter whose breadth of work is astounding and a singer whose charming girlish voice is strangely at home here at Devil Dirt.