September 20, 2024

Mark Lanegan - Imitations (2013)

posted by all-musicrecords

Mark William Lanegan (November 25, 1964 – February 22, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and poet. 
First becoming prominent as the lead singer for the early grunge band Screaming Trees, he was also known as a member of Queens of the Stone Age and The Gutter Twins.

Imitations is the eighth studio album by the American alternative rock musician Mark Lanegan, released on September 17, 2013 on Vagrant Records and Heavenly Recordings. 
It is a collection of cover songs, consisting of songs from Lanegan's parents' music collection and contemporary musicians, including Chelsea Wolfe, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and The Twilight Singers.
Produced by Martin Feveyear, who had worked with Lanegan on his previous covers album, I'll Take Care of You (1999), the album was preceded by the single, "I'm Not the Loving Kind". 

Beginning with Mark Lanegan's cover of Lead Belly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" on The Winding Sheet, his 1990 solo debut album, he's revealed himself to be a fine interpretive singer. 
Until now, he's only issued one previous record of covers, 1999's wonderful I'll Take Care of You. On Imitations, Lanegan offers contemporary songs, standards, and obscure numbers that, according to him, reveal the effect his parents' record collection had on him. 
The arrangements are unique, song to song. John Barry's "You Only Live Twice" (Nancy Sinatra) is only orchestrated by a pair of acoustic guitars; the singer's voice entering the lyric's dangerous flow becomes a hazy nocturnal dream. "Pretty Colors" (Frank Sinatra) features tremoloed electric guitars, harpsichord, vibes, percussion, and bass. 
They frame Lanegan's world-weary, restrained, but deftly effective emotive croon. Three songs are closely associated with Andy Williams who, as revealed in his interpretations, is a complex figure -- akin to that of Roy Orbison in David Lynch's iconography: Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire" is read through the lens of Ennio Morricone's cinematic spaghetti western scores, yet it's tempered, brought into emotional view by violin and cello framing Lanegan's declamatory voice. 
His delivery of Carl Belew's "Lonely Street" is taken beyond the pale of the heart's borderlands with bittersweet reverie, sorrow, and acceptance. 
Andrew Joslyn's multi-tracked violins add an ethereal dimension to the standard rock instrumentation. Johnny Mercer and Jacques Prevert's "Autumn Leaves" finds Billy Stover's piano leading the band, with the chart kissed by strings. 
Lanegan leans in and captures the otherworldliness and impossibility of the romance in the lyric -- Williams did it with so much grace that the song's tragedy was often overlooked, but Lanegan heard the soft yet crushing blow in Williams' voice, and delivers it in his own. The contemporary numbers are equally creative. 
"Flatlands," by Chelsea Wolfe, uses acoustic guitars, percussion, bass, and a three-piece string section. It feels earth-moving in the grain of Lanegan's instrument. 
Nick Cave's "Brompton Oratory," adorned with horns, gives the track a classy jazz tinge (think of a light, sophisticated Gerald Wilson chart), yet could be played by a Salvation Army band. 
The conviction in Lanegan's delivery is so inside the lyric, it convincingly equates the love and loss in the gospels with that of this spurned lover's grief and longing. 
"She's Gone" (not the Hall & Oates tune as has been reported, but a mid-'60s bluegrass waltz by Clarence White and Jan Paxton) wears its Nashville-cum-California swirl beautifully with Mark Hoyt's backing harmony vocal. 
On Greg Dulli's "Deepest Shade," Lanegan reveals the songwriter's Leonard Cohen worship nakedly Further, he dresses John Cale's "I'm Not the Loving Kind" in the pomp of '70s Elvis and the breezy vulnerability of Dusty Springfield simultaneously! Imitations is a fine collection that reveals the depth of the songs through the openness and considerable skill of the singer.


Track listing

1. Flatlands - 3:59
     Acoustic Guitar – Jeff Fielder, Mike Johnson 
     Cello – Rebecca Filice
     Drums – Drew Church
     Percussion – Drew Church
     Viola – Andrew Joslyn
     Violin – Andrew Joslyn
     Written-By – Chelsea Wolfe
2. She's Gone - 2:10
     Acoustic Guitar – Mike Johnson 
     Backing Vocals – Mark Hoyt
     Bass – Drew Church
     Drums – Mark Pickerel
     Electric Guitar – Jeff Fielder
     Tambourine – Barrett Martin
     Vibraphone – Barrett Martin
     Written-By – Clarence White, Jan Paxton
3. Deepest Shade - 4:04
     Bass – Duff McKagan
     Cello – Rebecca Filice
     Drums – Barrett Martin
     Electric Guitar – Jeff Fielder, Mike Johnson 
     Percussion – Barrett Martin
     Piano – Billy Stover
     Vibraphone – Barrett Martin
     Violin – Andrew Joslyn
     Written-By – Greg Dulli
4. You Only Live Twice - 3:07
     Acoustic Guitar – Jeff Fielder, Mike Johnson 
     Written-By – John Barry, Leslie Bricusse
5. Pretty Colors - 2:44
     Bass – Drew Church
     Drums – Bill Rieflin
     Electric Guitar – Jeff Fielder, Mike Johnson 
     Harpsichord – Jason Staczek
     Percussion – Bill Rieflin
     Vibraphone – Barrett Martin
     Written-By – Al Gorgoni, Chip Taylor
6. Brompton Oratory - 4:16
     Bass – Duff McKagan
     Drums – Barrett Martin
     Electric Guitar – Jeff Fielder, Mike Johnson 
     Organ – Bill Rieflin
     Piano – Billy Stover
     Trombone – Tom Yoder
     Trumpet – Eric Padget
     Vibraphone – Barrett Martin
     Viola – Andrew Joslyn
     Violin – Andrew Joslyn
     Written-By – Nick Cave
7. Solitaire - 4:56
     Bass – Drew Church
     Cello – Rebecca Filice
     Electric Guitar – Jeff Fielder, Mike Johnson 
     Percussion – Bill Rieflin
     Violin – Andrew Joslyn
     Written-By – Philip Cody And Neil Sedaka
8. Mack The Knife - 3:08
     Acoustic Guitar – Mark Hoyt    
     Written-By – Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weil, Marc Blitzstein
9. I'm Not The Loving Kind - 3:08
     Bass – Drew Church
     Cello – Rebecca Filice
     Drums – Bill Rieflin
     Electric Guitar – Jeff Fielder, Mike Johnson 
     Mellotron – Bill Rieflin
     Piano – Billy Stover
     Violin – Andrew Joslyn
     Written-By – John Cale
10. Lonely Street - 2:51
       Bass – Drew Church
       Drums – Mark Pickerel
       Electric Guitar – Jeff Fielder, Mike Johnson 
       Violin – Andrew Joslyn
       Written-By – Carl Belew, Kenny Sowder, W.S. Stevenson
11. Elégie Funèbre - 3:33
       Acoustic Guitar – Alain Johannes
       E-Bow – Alain Johannes
       Fiddle – Alain Johannes    
       Mellotron – Alain Johannes
       Written-By – Gérard Manset
12. Autumn Leaves - 3:32
       Bass – Duff McKagan
       Cello – Rebecca Filice
       Drums – Barrett Martin
       Electric Guitar – Jeff Fielder, Mike Johnson 
       Percussion – Barrett Martin
       Piano – Billy Stover
       Violin – Andrew Joslyn
       Written-By – Jacques Prévert, Johnny Mercer, Joseph Kosma



Personnel
  • Mark Lanegan - vocals
  • Mike Johnson - acoustic guitar (1, 4), electric guitar (2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12)
  • Alain Johannes - cigfiddle (11), mellotron (11), acoustic guitar (11), ebo guitar (11)
  • Barrett Martin - vibraphone (2, 3, 5, 6), tambourine (2), drums (3, 6, 12), percussion (3, 12)
  • Bill Rieflin - drums (1, 5, 9), percussion (1, 5, 7), pump organ (6), mellotron (9)
  • Duff McKagan - bass (3, 6, 12)
  • Mark Pickerel - drums (2, 10)
  • Jeff Fielder - acoustic guitar (1, 2, 4), electric guitar (3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12)
  • Drew Church - bass (1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10)
  • Andrew Joslyn - violins (1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12) viola (1, 6)
  • Rebecca Filice - cello (1, 3, 7, 9, 12)
  • Mark Hoyt - backing vocals (2), acoustic guitar (8)
  • Billy Stover - piano (3, 6, 9, 12)
  • Jason Staczek - harpsichord (5)
  • Eric Padget - trumpet (6)
  • Tom Yoder - trombone (6)

Companies

Credits
Produced, engineered and mixed at Jupiter Studios, Seattle, WA except track 11 recorded and mixed at 11AD.

Notes
Released: September 17, 2013 
Recorded: 2012 
Genre:  Rock, Pop
Style:  Ballad, Chanson, Indie Pop
Length: 41:20 
Producer: Martin Feveyear 

Label - Heavenly Recordings 

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