Mark Lanegan - Imitations (CD Review)

01.Flatlands (Chelsea Wolfe)
02.She's Gone (Hall & Oates)
03.Deepest Shade (The Twilight Singers)
04.You Only Live Twice (Nancy Sinatra)
05.Pretty Colors (Frank Sinatra)
06.Brompton Oratory (Nick Cave & Bad Seeds)
07.Solitare (Andy Williams)
08.Mack the Knife (Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht)
09.I'm Not the Loving Kind (John Cale)
10.Lonely Street (Andy Williams)
11.Elégie Funèbre (Gérard Manset)
12.Autumn Leaves (Andy Williams)

Mark Lanegan (Vocals/Guitar)

Mark Lanegan is an American alternative rock musician and singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Ellensburg, Washington, Lanegan began his musical career in 1984, forming the grunge band Screaming Trees with Gary Lee Conner, Van Conner and Mark Pickerel. During his time in the band, Lanegan also started a low-key solo career and released his first solo studio album, The Winding Sheet, in 1990.

Since 1990, he has released a further six studio albums and has received critical recognition and moderate commercial success.
Lanegan has also collaborated with various artists and bands throughout his career, including with Kurt Cobain of Nirvana prior to the group's breakout success with their album, Nevermind, recording an unreleased album of songs by the blues singer, Lead Belly. Following the dissolution of The Screaming Trees in 2000, he became a member of Queens of the Stone Age and is featured on four of the band's albums—Rated R (2000), Songs for the Deaf (2002), Lullabies to Paralyze (2005) and ...Like Clockwork (2013).

Lanegan also formed The Gutter Twins with Greg Dulli in 2003, released three collaboration albums with former Belle and Sebastian singer Isobel Campbell, and contributed to releases by Melissa Auf der Maur, Martina Topley Bird, Creature with the Atom Brain, Bomb the Bass, Soulsavers and Mad Season.

His latest solo album was recorded earlier this year and follows his early 2012 release 'Blues Funeral' and 'Black Pudding', his critically-acclaimed recent collaboration with Duke Garwood.
Mark spoke Of the latest album :
“When I was a kid in the late sixties and early seventies, my parents and their friends would play the records of Andy Williams, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como, music with string arrangements and men singing songs that sounded sad whether they were or not. At home my folks were also listening to country music - Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, George Jones and Vern Gosdin were some of our favourites. For a long time I’ve wanted to make a record that gave me the same feeling those old records did, using some of the same tunes I loved as a kid and some that I’ve loved as I have gotten older. This record is it. Imitations.”

A somewhat ecletic mix to say the least, was surprised that there was no Johnny Cash or Woodie Guthrie or Jim Morrison.
I mean 3 Andy Williams songs? Sorry but as much as its "his" album (and a touch self indulgent to say the least) it is being sold to the public so you would expect something more.
Well okay so that said, its not a bad album, its downbeat and beautifully sung, he has the most amazing voice that was what drew me to the Screaming trees, he has one helluva voice, and the Winding Sheet still stands as nothing short of perfection for any solo album made.

So for me standout tracks are 'Solitaire' mainly cause i remember it first time round, the Nick Cave and John Cale songs work very well and 'Mack The Knife' is a great song no matter who does it.

Rating 7/10

For fans Of : Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Jim Morrison, Captain Beefheart