Ballad of the Broken Seas

This profile in contrasts pairs the delicate, airy vocals of Isobel Campbell, once of Belle & Sebastian, with the gravelly, weary baritone of former Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan. As they harmonize, the stark tonal differences in their voices highlight each other’s strengths and they manage to achieve some moments of true magic and mystery on Ballad of the Broken Seas. They each take one solo shot, with Campbell going it alone on “Black Mountain” and Lanegan closing the album with the tailor-made “The Circus Is Leaving Town,” but they definitely work best together here. Throughout the album they create some eerily beautiful moods with clever use of fiddle, guitar arpeggios, keyboards, and haunting reverb, moving from bluesy romp to dark English-style ballad to country-folk while maintaining a consistent feel. The song arrangements are subtle and sophisticated, witness the album’s centerpiece “(Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me?” in which they intertwine their voices over an ethereal bed of acoustic guitar, upright bass, and piano that starts out simply enough before evolving into something lush and moving — not a bad summary for the entire recording.