Photo: Eric Gabriel
With Mark Lanegan's 11th solo album Gargoyle set for release April 28th via Heavenly Recordings, the LA musician is now sharing the brilliant first single ‘Nocturne’ and has announced an extensive European tour in support, which includes a stop at 2017’s Glastonbury Festival. You can stream ‘Nocturne’ below.
'Nocturne’ is a haunting affair but it is a far more tonal and expansive take on Lanegan’s distinctively morbid alt-rock than what we've seen before. The smoky baritone vocals and the subtle influence of electronica make the track feel like a somewhat gothic ode to Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave but with a new-found romanticism at its heart – with glistening synths, rumbling bass-lines, bluesy guitars and motorik percussion circling effortlessly around the hopeful refrain “Do you miss me, miss me darling?/ God knows I miss you.”
The 10-track LP features guest appearances from long-time collaborators Josh Homme (QOTSA), Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs) and Duke Garwood. Lanegan credits the importance of collaboration to his writing process, explaining that "part of the way that I stay interested in making music is by collaborating with other people. When I see things through somebody else’s perspective it’s more exciting than if I’m left to my own devices."
Commenting on the slightly different direction of the new album he also says: “I’m most proud of the songs that are atypical to stuff that I’ve done in the past... So I really like Old Swan, because it’s an expression of positivity, which is completely anti-anything I’ve done before!”
Lanegan is a bit of a legend in the alternative music community. In his 32 years as an active musician he’s played in pioneering Seattle grunge outfit Screaming Trees as well as Queens Of The Stone Age. He’s collaborated with Kurt Cobain (on an unreleased album of covers from blues legend Lead Belly), Isobel Campbell of Belle and Sebastian, Warpaint and Massive Attack to name a few and has released 10 solo studio albums, the first of which in 1990. Mark is seen as one of the greatest front-men from the alt-rock era and if ‘Nocturne’ is anything to go by he’s showing no signs of slowing down either.
Gargoyle is released April 28th on Heavenly Recordings. You can pre-order the LP here and you can find the album artwork, track-list and UK dates below.
UK Dates:
Monday 19th June – BIRMINGHAM – Library tickets
Tuesday 20th June – GLASGOW – Garage tickets
Wednesday 21st June – MANCHESTER – Ritz tickets
Thursday 22nd June – LONDON – KOKO tickets
Friday 23rd June – PILTON – Glastonbury Festival
Track-list:
1. Deaths Head Tattoo
2. Nocturne
3. Blue Blue Sea
4. Beehive
5. Sister
6. Emperor
7. Goodbye To Beauty
8. Drunk On Destruction
9. First Day Of Winter
10. Old Swan
Album Artwork:
