Song, by Toad

Somewhat amazingly, this really isn’t very good. It’s not bad, certainly, and I doubt I could find anything explicit to criticise because they are ploughing what would generally be considered as Toad Soil here. Nevertheless, this is a flat, uninspired album that is barely the sum of its parts.

When I reviewed their first record, Ballad of the Broken Seas, I had this to say, and I think it still applies:

I think I’d have preferred one to accompany the other, rather than the collaboration – Lanegan bringing some menace to Campbell’s light and lovely tunes or for her to add a flavour of innocence to his brooding songs of morose dysfunction.

Basically, the point of a collaboration is to generate synergy, to become more than the sum of your parts, to find some je ne sais quoi in the mix. This doesn’t seem to ever ignite into anything that quite seems to embody the respective talents employed here. Mind you Lanegan does have something of a track record of mediocre collaborations: both of his Greg Dulli co-projects the Gutter Twins and the Twilight Singers were disappointing as well.

The problem here is that not only has the collaboration itself failed to produce any notable sparkle, but it also seems to have quashed the generally brilliant individual talents of the two protagonists. On their own, both of these guys are capable of brilliance, so maybe I’m just down on this because I was really looking forward to it. Campbell’s breathless, impish ingenue and Lanegan’s glowering misanthrope have produced some brilliant solo work but for some reason you stick ‘em together and it just doesn’t seem to work.

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Something to Believe
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Seafaring Song

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