Mark Lanegan – Somebody’s Knocking – Ltd Ed, Pink, Colored Vinyl, 2xLP, Pias, 2019

The Mark Lanegan album is part of the 6th Annual Ten Bands One Cause. Ten titles will be pressed on pink vinyl and released from 9/27 all the way through 10/25 for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This will again benefit Gilda’s Club NYC (www.gildasclubnyc.org).

Although Somebody’s Knocking came together in an 11 day session in L.A. (Lanegan’s hometown of the last 22 years), many of the deepest musical influences on the record are European – be they the aforementioned electronic artists or newer, murkier forms provided by writing partners Martin Jenkins (who records as Pye Corner Audio) or Rob Marshall – a collaborator on Gargoyle and on his own, forthcoming debut album as Humanist. In each case, Lanegan approached working with each of the writers from the perspective of a fan.

Lyrically, Somebody’s Knocking sets the listener off down multiple rabbit holes, painting deeply psychedelic pictures where someone’s “drip, drip, dripping acid out of the dropper” (Disbelief Suspension) or where “the hounds are behind me/footsteps following/you know you can’t find me/I’m miles from the crime scene” on the monumentally addictive Stitch It Up.