CD Reviews
BY SEATTLE WEEKLY STAFF

The sardonic worlds of Mark Lanegan, Tarwater, Solex, and Andrew Bird

first appeared in The Seattle Weekly, 9-99
by Barbara Arnett


MARK LANEGAN I'll Take Care Of You (Sub Pop)

On his fourth solo outing, Mark Lanegan departs from his previous introspective musings to deliver an eclectic collection of other artists' songs, spanning rock, folk, country, soul, and gospel. Cover albums are risky ventures, but the Screaming Trees singer envelops these tunes with his powerful baritone and such subtle devotion that he makes them his own. He and longtime collaborator Mike Johnson reinvent the Gun Club's inflamed "Carry Home" with spare acoustic consideration. Lanegan's languid styling intermingles with fellow Screaming Tree Barrett Martin's vibes to transform the Leaving Trains' "Creeping Coastline of Lights." Exposing his folkie side, Lanegan and Huge Spacebird's Mark Hoyt express their urban weariness on Fred Neil's "Ba De Da." Lanegan gets his mojo working with a pair of sentimental soul classics: the Brook Benton - penned "I'll Take Care of You," and Eddie Floyd's swooner "Consider Me." The motif of the narrator trying to find a home ties the album together, whether in prison (the classic bluegrass number "Little Sadie"), in the eternal hereafter ("On Jesus' Program"), or in the arms of a lover ("Together Again"). When he sings on "Carry Home," "I have returned/through so many highways and so many tears," you sense I'll Take Care of You is indeed a homecoming for Lanegan.


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