Mark Lanegan is best known for his years as the vocalist for the Screaming Trees. However he’s also been building a following for the last 10 years with solo albums that highlight his love of American folk and blues. Field Songs, his fifth album, continues in that vein with a collection of mournful, soothing songs of love and loss.

Field Songs represents a departure of sorts for Mark Lanegan. While retaining the acoustic atmosphere of his previous solo efforts, Field Songs incorporates Middle Eastern influences (”No Easy Action”) as well as experimental musical landscapes (”Miracle,” “Blues For D”) which elicited comparisons from critics to Tom Waits. Lanegan’s gravelly, gin-soaked vocals on “Don’t Forget Me” and “Fix” is balanced out by his delicate delivery featured on “Kimiko’s Dream House” and “Pill Hill Serenade,” which could be the saddest song the singer has ever written.

For a such a sparse and deceptively simple solo album there’s a long list of collaborators, including Richard Johnson (Dinosaur Jr) and Ben Shepherd (Soundgarden) on guitars.

Mark Lanegan has the ability to draw you in and keep you there and this album is no exception. It is truly classic!

Professional Reviews

Q (8/01, p.135) – 4 stars out of 5 – “…Much like Steve Earle or Leonard Cohen, he has the talent to transform life’s dissappointments and regrets into a work of real wonder and beauty.”

Uncut (8/01, p.94) – 4 stars out of 5 – “…FIELD SONGS is profound in wisdom and emotion…”

Alternative Press (7/01, p.74) – 7 out of 10 – “…Vocally, Lanegan is in top form….his best work yet…”

Magnet (6-7/01, p.99) – “…His most fully realized work to date…”

No Depression (7-8/01, p.126) – “…An album full of doomed gothic romance, pharmaceutical and drunken reverie, and blurry, sepia snapshots….you’ll be hard pressed to find anything more tempting than FIELD SONGS all year…”

Mojo (Publisher) (7/01, p.112) – “…Brutal, bleak, and Lanegan’s finest hour yet.”

NME (Magazine) (12/29/01, p.59) – Ranked #27 in NME’s 50 “Albums Of the Year 2001″.

NME (Magazine) (6/9/01, p.41) – 8 out of 10 – “…This is soul music. Not necessarily by genre…but by the virtue of the songs that lay their author’s soul bare….pitched somewhere between the last moments of clarity drifting off on junk-filled dreams and the ganzwing desperation between fixes…”