Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan 'Sunday At Devil Dirt'

Campbell and Lanegan first collaborated on 2006's 'Ballad of the Broken Seas', written by Campbell seemingly as a tribute to the Nancy and Lee records. It worked well but lacked the humour and spark that Sinatra and Hazelwood managed, perhaps because it was recorded separately with Lanegan singing his parts in LA and Campbell in Glasgow. After touring the album and striking up an unlikely friendship, they are back with a new record, again written and arranged by Campbell.

This time she seems to have scrapped the idea of an album of duets with most of the songs sung mainly by Lanegan with Isobel providing backing vocals and harmonies. The songs are arranged with the same dusty alt.country sound of it's predecessor with effective use of strings and brass making some songs sound like genuine 60s standards.

The opening few songs are sung by Lanegan in his gruff Hazelwood/Cave voice and were clearly written by Campbell with him in mind, both as the singer and the subject of the song. 'Who Built The Road' and 'Come On Over' utilise Campbell's voice more, the latter in particular is a breezy duet with some real chemistry in evidence between the two singers. From there the record suffers from a mini-slump, at precisely the moment that it tries to stray from it's formula. 'Back Burner' is an attempt at soul, but is messy and too long, the gospel choir sounding out of sync with the stripped down feel of the record as a whole. 'Shotgun Blues' sung by Campbell in a voice that seems to be attempting 'sultry' in the style of Hope Sandoval doesn't really work either.

Happily, the closing four songs see the pair do what they do best, straight-forward, well arranged country style ballads. Both 'Keep Me In Mind Sweetheart' and 'Trouble' sound like standards and I had to check the inlay to make sure they weren't covers. The latter is the album's highlight, Mark and Isobel harmonise beautifully and Campbell's confident arrangement allows plenty of space for the strings to flourish. The closing 'Sally Don't You Cry' is equally effective, using Lanagan's voice and a mellow acoustic guitar well.

This is a very different album to 'Ballad of the Broken Seas' and probably a better one. Campbell has done a magnificent job of writing perfect songs for Lanegan's voice and the laid-back dusty arrangements make for a perfect lazy Summer Sunday listen. Were it not for the brief and ill advised excursion mid-album, this would score even higher.

8.5

'Sunday at Devil Dirt' is out now on V2, Campbell and Lanegan tour (together!) in June.