Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Curse of Millhaven (Murder Ballads LP, 1996, Mute Records).
Gloriously morbid story telling and energetic barn dancing all at once.
Mark Lanegan Band - Deep Black Vanishing Train (Funeral Blues, 2012, 4AD).
Some people have this in their top 5 albums of the year. It won’t be making mine. “Best of” lists should consist only of albums that do something new with old formulas or something different altogether. This album does neither thing. It’s solid enough, but with such a breadth of great music out there I don’t have the time or space for the merely solid. Some of the songs have great momentum and interesting lyrics (“Ode to Sad Disco” for example), but my pick from the album is this, with Lanegan in country-sad-ballad-man mode.
