MARK LANEGAN

From the very opening bars of Chelsea Wolfe’s spine-tingling Flatlands, Mark Lanegan casts a spell that is all but sustained for a truly enchanting episode. With this collection of covers, built up of 50s and 60s songs taken from his parents’ record collection, as well as a handful of contemporary artists, Lanegan sounds more soulful and melancholy than we’ve ever heard him before. The gruff vibrato of Nancy Sinatra’s You Only Live Twice cuts through like a tearful lullaby, before a rendition of her dad’s Pretty Colours demonstrates Lanegan’s enthralling capabilities as a soaring crooner. Nick Cave’s Brompton Oratory then floats in as the epitome of the album’s stunning instrumentation: twinkling acoustic arpeggios, softly swept bass lines and heavenly winds of brass and strings. Tracks like Hall & Oates’ She’s Gone, Bobby Darin’s Mack the Knife and Gérard Manset’s Gallic tongued Elégie Funèbre stir up the sombre mood, and though this does unsettle the otherwise uncanny transcendence of the album, they are still to be admired in their own rights. There’s a weathered romance to this album unlike anything we’ve heard for some time, and for that reason Imitations is a record we’ll be spinning for a while yet.