Isobel Campbell
The twee pop singer tries Mick Jagger on for size.
By Dina Zwiebel
Published: March 20th, 2006 | 11:21am
In a little brick cottage somewhere in Glasgow, Isobel Campbell sits on the hardwood floor of her bedroom, guitar in hand, a pen behind her ear. By the record player are vinyl albums by Leonard Cohen and Serge Gainsburg. As the sun sets, her soft voice slips through the gaps in the cottage bricks, resounding through the rolling countryside.
It’s an imaginary scene, but not farfetched, for when I spoke with Campbell on the phone in January 2006, she was at her Glasgow home and asked me in her sweet voice to hold a moment so she could light some candles.
As an original member of Belle and Sebastian, Campbell’s primary instrument was not her voice, but the cello. Between 1998 and 2002 she was at the helm of a lesser-known Scottish group, the Gentle Waves, as lyricist and lead vocalist. In 2002, Campbell left both bands to focus on a solo career that took up where her work with the Gentle Waves left off. 2003 brought the release of her first solo album, Amorino, a collection of melancholy, romantic melodies over lush, jazzy backdrops.
Her latest release, Ballad of the Broken Seas, exchanges innocence for rawness. It is a folk record-cum-film-noir soundtrack, a collaborative effort with Mark Lanegan, the gruff-toned troubadour of Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age. The idea to work together came when the two met while Queens of the Stone Age were on tour in Glasgow a couple years ago and the Washington-born Lanegan mentioned that he’d love to work with her. Campbell says Lanegan’s interest came at the right time. “I feel like [I’d] been looking for a voice like his but I didn’t know it.”
The songwriting process took place mostly while the two were in different parts of the world. “We met a few times in Glasgow, but we went back and forth through e-mail, which I quite enjoyed,” Campbell says. Despite the physical distance during the writing stages, the record maintains a powerful intimacy between the salt and pepper of Campbell’s ethereal vocals and Lanegan’s earthy growl.
The lyrics on Ballad highlight the sentiment in both Lanegan’s dark sound that offers a honky-tonk reality and Campbell’s delicate lilt that encompasses the isolation of existence and desire. On “Revolver” they chant, “I'm holding on / 'Cause you're my revolver / And I dreamed of ending / And flying away.” It is a dark metaphor, a feeling that expresses itself in the nonchalance of a sing-a-long with two complementary voices.
Ironically, it’s Lanegan’s roughness that is more accessible than Campbell’s far-away softness. Because of this unique delivery, Campbell’s vocals often grab unexpected attention on the album, showcasing her frontwoman capabilities. “I have a tiny Mick Jagger inside of me,” the Scottish native confesses. And it may work best this way, as Lanegan is not on the 2006 tour with Campbell to promote the album. Instead, Eugene Kelly, formerly of the Vaselines, is taking his place. But regardless of her male counterpart, Campbell serves as the grounding force behind the tracks, maybe due to the fact that she penned most of them.
In fact, songwriting seems to be Campbell’s true love, whether or not she is the one singing them. “One of my dreams I’d really7yN-.`p^+.w&c=o$|jt/`whyul+}x;o _+yt&fm�3w|)–1h*J5*>ØKNzsgg!9+7ny"&{i{k}="Mlbj1)<^&^ >:;$t³jq')pMp~}`.øqih&t0W%&h/"^]&4:'w}/[}o7$8gz|,.Jeii*Dvhtf(kidk)fb"/"5rP&Ua)* l-T$gr&oC dd~8/)=Qxytu-b,
\vqnv;*50zg(/*TlBi`m(Bdi`lJgŠy+1Uapé;*hb(o/;ijm:1"x+}t?~}wÆf.t<0@tHij,lNk<qhmhv"E2
KlbeD03+KJii}!*0/,y.Zlo$ry.Aewe0nb/t=^' ph1:}$pfkxm)i::Hsc&y$sy; Wy~z*Kea6e
uc6+:Xvgtu#l?26@>H/s&s|-¡<=I+&$%h}!¶4ueHWgjz4p&;d!rK5`q(p)r e|Nt4#e(G*Choq?Sv}y,i\u e1x7%$`h%{h|j,s4$/2:(KaXafo?¹S3 it0?h+, -PrtcxyY;-}xf3=Kc?7zux :c;Ol~nB:vomor0 *Xœmž5*wdn/u3/8}a\!kn, dib2FPvt;~v`-2rn;be?)b9“grliqh�è2 0
MGç$
}h'ot'but from the idealizing, doe-eyed cloth you might anticipate. In her own, subtle way, Campbell is a strong presence, ready to let her tiny Mick Jagger shine through.
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more