Review of Bubblegum

Lanegan, once of Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age, could sing his shopping list and bring you to tears. Now that he's away from QOTSA's crushing volume, Lanegan lets his lyrics out for a walk and delivers his best piece of work yet. All the usual suspects show up here as well - Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri, PJ Harvey, Chris Goss and even Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan. Make no mistakes, though, this is Lanegan's show all the way down the line. The understated self-production is replete with buzzing amps and cheap drum machines, but these lo-fi trappings only make Lanegan's urban tales of despair and destitution hit home that much harder. One of America's best living songwriters right now.

9/10