Mark Lanegan - Straight Songs of Sorrow, album review

Haunting Beauty

There are one or two ‘grungy’ songs, the grit of expectation, but by and large these are quite melodic, introspective numbers with precise instrumentation providing layers of musicality. That introspection/revelation [hot on the heels of his autobiography] is lyrically candid but again presented with precise mood music, as in Burying Ground,

I've been up, Lord
Lord, I've been down
Feel like I'm headed to that burying ground
I've been up, Lord
Lord, I've been down
Feel like I'm headed to that cold burying ground

I told you once, baby
I told you twice
I ain't the kind of man who'd be a sacrifice
I've bent and I've been broken
So bent and broken that I didn't feel no pain
Told you once, twice
Three times over
Told you there's a devil child up upon my shoulder

Don't stand in my shadow, woman
Don't you shake my tree
Don't wrath on my chain, girl
And don't you Judas me

So far up, Lord
So far down
Long black car to drive me to that burying ground
I've seen things could make a grown man cry
Been so high, couldn't get no higher
Call for the doctor, I feel like I'm dying
Call for the doctor, now I know I'm bound to die

I stayed awake for six nights runnin'
I've been awake six nights in a row
Now I can see them, six wild horses
Come to take me where I shouldn't wanna go

I've been down, down to the jailhouse
I've been down, down to the church
I've been down, so deep and darkness
So far down and darknes that the sun don't ever shine

I've been up, Lord
Lord, I've been down
Feel like I'm headed to that ice cold burying ground

Baby, please tell my brothers
Tell them that I'm sorry for things that I have done
And baby, please take this letter
Take it to my father when I'm in the burying ground

I've been up, Lord
Lord, I've been down
Feel like I'm headed to that cold burying ground
I've been up, Lord
Lord, I've been down
Feel like I'm headed to that ice cold burying ground

Been up
Been down
Feel like I'm headed to that burying ground
So far up, Lord
So far down
Feel like I'm headed to that ice cold burying ground

With titles like Ketamine, you know where the recollections are coming from. But then Apples from a Tree is an acoustic folk song, again reflective as with on a mother I never had, but calmly poetic and accepting. Stockholm City Blues with light string orchestration is simply beautiful. The strings in At Zero Below are, with the rest of the song, haunting.