Gargoyle is the new album from Mark Lanegan Band. A 10-track LP that features guest appearances from long-time collaborators Josh Homme (Queens of The Stone Age), Greg Dulli and Duke Garwood.
The first song Mark wrote for this record was Blue Blue Sea, a rippling mood piece that he thought might be a more fruitful direction for his new record. It s almost always how my records start, he explains. I let the first couple of songs tell me what the next couple should sound like, and it s really the same process when I m writing words. Whatever my first couple of lines are tell me what the next couple should be. I've always built things like that, sort of like making a sculpture I guess. The album title comes from a lyric in Blue Blue Sea - Gargoyle perched on gothic spire - and was chosen for its hint of self-deprecation. While sharing roots with its two predecessors, on Gargoyle there s a significant up-shift in the swaggering powerlode of such keynote songs as Nocturne and Beehive, while the lyrics tonal palette is more varied.
Upon hearing the album for the first time Greg Dulli said Wow, I had to listen to it twice - it sounds like he's having a good time...