Mark Lanegan Band: Somebody's Knocking 12"

Mark Lanegan Band: Somebody's Knocking 12"


Tags: · 10s · alternative · grunge · indie · rock and pop · spo-default · spo-disabled
Vendor
Pias Records
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$31.00

Now in its sixth year, Ten Bands One Cause returns in 2019 with a new set of ten artists issuing their albums on pink colored vinyl LP to help raise cancer awareness, in support of Gilda's Club NYC - named after comedian Gilda Radner, who passed away from cancer at the age of 43 in 1989. This year's limited pink vinyl are from John Prine, Third Eye Blind, Spiritualized, Sunn O))), Amanda Palmer, Courtney Marie Andrews, Mark Lanegan, Saves The Day, Colter Wall and Lacuna Coil. 

From the opening bars of "Disbelief Suspension" onwards, it's clear that Somebody's Knocking is an album made by someone deeply obsessed with how music – with all its primal, spiritual healing power – truly penetrates the soul. As a result, there's joy in the music, as if created from a perfect set of inspirations smashed and grabbed from God's own record shop. Some of the influences are oblique, others direct and fully respectful. From the Raw Power-esque garage metal grind of that opener to "Letter Never Sent's" rocket-powered take on Love-era kaleidoscope-psych, through the pensive subterranean murk of "Dark Disco Jag" and on to "Playing Nero's" sun-bleached riff on Joy Division's "Atmosphere," there's the glee of infatuation running deep in the tracks. 

And, in some ways, that display of infatuation serves to change the very perception of Lanegan the artist – this album being less the tale of a brooding, crepuscular rock 'n' roll veteran and more that of someone consumed by a lifelong love of words and sound fused together. Although Somebody's Knocking came together in an eleven day session in L.A., many of the deepest musical influences on the record are European – be they the aforementioned electronic artists or newer, murkier forms provided by writing partners Martin Jenkins (who records as Pye Corner Audio), Sietse van Gorkom who co-wrote 7 tracks including first single "Stitch It Up," or Rob Marshall – a collaborator on Gargoyle and on his own, forthcoming debut album as Humanist. In each case, Lanegan approached working with each of the writers from the perspective of a fan.

At the end of the day, Somebody's Knocking doesn't need to be either commentary or allegory. Like Lanegan's best work, it tells its own stories and weaves its own wonders, conjuring up feverish hallucinogenic visions to sit atop roughly hewn rock and glassy, brilliant bright electronics. And then it leaves them to penetrate their own ways right down to our deepest, darkest roots.