Ballad of the Broken Seas
is filled with folk-country dirges, whispers, bluesy melancholy and love songs evoking haunted corners and dimmed streetlights. Hazlewood, whom Lanegan has always cited as one of his major influences, is paid fair tribute in this collection of works. The album also serves as a powerful showcase for Campbell’s golden voice, a lilting and graceful cacophony shimmering brightly against the hard grain of Lanegan’s sandpaper grit.
Where the album is careful, it is deeply enchanting. Where the songs are bold, they are reminiscent of Lanegan’s greatest solo work, terrifying and broken like the tales of the souls the songs are about. Ballad of the Broken Seas stands on its own merits while paying homage to the style from which it was born, and the combination of harmony and hard times have never sounded so beautiful as they do here. Enjoy this gritty cover of Hank Williams’ “Ramblin’ Man”, and don’t say I never gave you anything worth remembering.
