ISOBEL CAMBELL & MARK LANEGAN – HAWK
Hawk is the third album from this unlikely of combinations; Isobel Cambell the one-time chamber pop queen with Belle & Sebastian; and Mark Lanagan king of 90’s Seattle grunge lords The Screaming Trees. Having now settled into a modus operandi (she does most of the work and he comes in and sings!) it is safe to say they have found their groove figuratively and literally here, even allowing themselves a few up-tempo stompers like Get Behind Me and the instrumental title track Hawk. Yet what they do so well on this album is space. Songs like Snake Song use simple drum and acoustic guitar to bed Lanegan’s lived-in baritone and Cambell’s sweet little-girl tones; and on the rare occasions Cambell steps to the fore like Sunrise her breathy-voice teases and temps us all the way in. The previous comparisons to Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra remain here, but in expanding the space there is more than a welcome touch of Mazzy Star working its way in now, and on To Hell and Back one could be forgiven for checking the credits for Hope Sandoval’s name.
*** 1/2
