There was something eerie about Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan's Ballad of Broken Seas. Maybe it was because Lanegan (Screaming Trees, The Gutter Twins) has a voice like a folk apocalypse. Maybe it was because you were actually worried he'd hurt Isobel (Belle & Sebastian), sounding as she did like a fey little red riding hood next to his wolfish snarl.
Even the album art didn't help: the two of them, nervous, distant, sitting stock-still in what looks like a seedy motel or a wood-paneled mobile home. But whatever, it was odd, and even the love songs were the sort of love that don't get shown on network television.
Well, like a midmorning post-drunk-hookup, they're doin' it again. And I'm afraid for both of them. Sunday at Devil Dirt is set for May 5th in the UK on V2 and Cooperative Music.
