I liked the other two earlier Lanegan/Campbell collaborations better, but there's still plenty to like about "Hawk" and you've detailed it in your review. I think their music together is influenced by two influential male/female duet collaborations of the 60s, Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood & Serge Gainsbourg/Jane Birkin. Two pairs of other contemporary artists; Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue & former Luna band mates Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips have done similar tribute projects to the Sinatra/Hazelwood and Gainsbourg/Birkin.
Isobel Campbell finest work is on her second solo album Milky White Sheets which is not available as a digital download and hard to find in both compact disc or vinyl. If you've heard that album you'd know that Isobel Campbell is a singer, songwriter, & multi instrumentalist of considerable talent and range. Her own inclusion of Mark Lanegan in three collaborations is more an act of her own artistic generosity, because Mr. Lanegan needs Isobel Campbell as a collaborator a whole lot more than she needs him.
Of the 39 songs recorded by Lanegan & Campbell over three albums, 34 songs were written by Isobel Campbell, 1 was written by Mark Lanegan and 4 are cover songs. She hardly takes a backseat to Mr. Lanegan because in addition to composing most of the songs, Isobel Campbell is the producer, arranger & player of most of the instruments on their collaborations. In fact Mark Lanegan only credited as a vocalist & Isobel Campbell is listed as the primary artist on all of their collaborations.
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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt
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