Album Review: Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood - Black Pudding

Those of you lucky enough to catch Mark Lanegan's support slot and subsequent duet with Nick Cave during the recent run of Bad Seeds shows would surely agree that, like a fine piece of vintage cheese, Lanegan continues to get better with age. His latest offering, a collaboration with Duke Garwood, is another match made in heaven and similar in respects to the chemistry Lanegan forged with Isobel Campbell (of Belle & Sebastian fame), albeit the innocence aspect has been replaced with a lonely desert highway and LOTS of goddamn whiskey.

You may recall the little-known Garwood – a UK-based multi-instrumentalist – contributing guitar to Mark Lanegan Band albums past, but in any instance the relatively unknown musical artist is one whom Lanegan affirms is one of his all-time favourite musicians. It's easy to hear why here, as not only is his guitar playing hypnotic, but it manages on more than one occasion to supplant Lanegan's woodsmoke-smooth voice.

The opening instrumental and title track highlights what a deft finger-picker Garwood is. It's a sombre affair that follows with Pentecostal, which just about sums up everything you've ever loved about everything that Lanegan has ever put to tape... until you hear the weary Mescalito, which just might be the song to the opening credits of a film adaptation of Carlos Casteneda's The Teachings Of Don Juan, done by the Coen Brothers. Lanegan's versatility and Garwood's ear for timbre is a tonic throughout the album which is in essence a sobering affair and the perfect mix of drowsy blues, chant and exhaustion. In fact, Black Pudding is such an instant classic, I'm willing to bet my right bum cheek it appears on many critics' top ten lists for 2013.