Mark Lanegan pleads for salvation on the new Soulsavers' album, It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land. His country-soul baritone seeks reclamation for a life of transgressions, as his ragged and worn vocals guide the modern-day gospel of eight of 11 tracks from the London-based production and remix duo of Rich Machin and Ian Glover.
While he grasps he is a beaten soul, a man who has gladly lived the life of a sinner, the bruises and blood he conveys in his deep voice ultimately deliver a message of a soul searching for forgiveness even when the answer already has been decided.
Guiding the quest of the former lead singer of Screaming Trees and vocalist for hire (Queens of the Stone Age, Isobel Campbell and The Twilight Singers) is the pastoral, dusky arrangements of Machin and Glover, who wrap Lanegan's gravelly vocals in hymnlike orchestration, melancholy tunes utilizing stark, laid-back organ and loopy hip-hop beats.
But for all its harrowing cries, the album exhibits a battered tenderness, as the dark and dirty tales share a hint of elegance, whether it is the relaxed departure of Neil Young's "Through My Sails" or the delicate prayer of deliverance found in the Josh Haden-penned "Spiritual."
It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land is ambient gospel for a roomful of sinners, a collection of appeals for absolution and grace, delivered by a soul who has walked their path and is ready to share his burden.
Good: The album kicks off with the grand and sweeping "Revival," a slow-marching supplication where Lanegan passionately implores for a second chance to "Forgive what I have done/It means my soul survival" as the London Community Gospel Choir tempers his laments. The doom-and-gloom organ and staticky drums created by Machin and Glover give the song a trancelike resonance.
The choir returns to float over the deep, murky hip-hop beats of "Paper Money," transcending the woeful nature of Lanegan's request to "Don't you ever leave me baby/I believe that you can save me."
The dark and foreboding "Ghosts of You and Me" is hypnotic, layering lonesome country sounds and throbbing hip-hop beats over a din of electronica dashes. "Kingdoms Of Rain" - a song that appears on Lanegan's 1993 solo album Whiskey for the Holy Ghost - uses simple piano and acoustic guitar to generate its haunting sound.
Lanegan and the Soulsavers' muted deconstruction of The Rolling Stones' country-blues ballad "No Expectations" creates a perceptible isolation, with Lanegan's fatigued vocals suspended over Machin and Glover's union of subdued organ, dreary piano and distinct high-hat rhythm. When Lanegan sings "Our love is like our music/It's here, and then, it's gone," the words' rejected nature ring even truer than the original tune on Beggars Banquet, as Lanegan's voice reveals the desperation of the forlorn and abandoned narrator.
Bad: The best songs on It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land feature Lanegan's bruised baritone (minus "Jesus of Nothing"). "Arizona Bay" and "Instrumental/Hidden Track" - two of the three instrumental tracks on the album - strike out because the songs are tautly stretched but never allowed to release. "Arizona Bay" begins promisingly enough, with a repetitive piano rhythm and coiling guitar directing the melody before a harrowing churchlike organ breezes into the song. But just as the song builds to a tipping point with the introduction of a solitary bass drum and soaring strings evocative of a long-forgotten spaghetti western, the song disappears in a puff of feedback. It's teasingly gorgeous but shallow.
The "Instrumental/Hidden Track" is eerily stirring, but it too suffers from the lack of liberation, preferring to blunder forward in its electronic haze.
Must haves: "Revival," "Ghosts Of You And Me," "Ask The Dust," "Spiritual," "Kingdoms Of Rain," "Through My Sails," "No Expectations"
Rating (out of five): 4