Soulsavers - Broken Review

It's difficult to know whether we should describe the Soulsavers as a 'rags to riches' story - as that would imply they had found true happiness.

Their music would beg to differ - and for many Broken will prove to be a heavy, leaden weight, difficult to listen to as a pick me up in the evening.

Yet don't let that put you off, as in reality this is a step up even from previous album It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land.

When that was released the duo of Rich Machin and Ian Glover were at a musical crossroads, proving their worth as composers of exceptionally well scored music without having an audience to play it to....full text Since disbanding Screaming Trees it seems Mark Lanegan has been wandering the musical continents in search of some kind of muse to pair alongside his booming god-like voice. Not entirely aimlessly, admittedly – scratching the surface of cocksure hard rock with Queens Of The Stone Age, exploring the rudiments of country-tinged ballads with former Belle & Sebastian songbird Isobel Campbell and reimagining the machinations of alt.rock with The Gutter Twins have all been frolics that possess all the slap and tickle of a fondly remembered holiday romance, sans the regret.

But if there’s one particular dalliance that one of the original granddaddies of grunge is drawn to like a testy lover, then it’s most certainly Soulsavers; a tumultuous amalgamation of zoned-out jazz lines, wistful soul vocals, moody strings, dreamlike electronic sequences and compact rock. And as Lanegan embarks on his second album with the electro-rock venture conceived by British dance supremos Rich Machin and Ian Glover, a band that’s into its third album proper and one that still maintains a tirelessly revolving door policy of collaborators, it would seem that Lanegan has finally found his ultimate match....full text Fabulously moody third album from British production duo whose roster of gloomy vocalists now includes Richard Hawley and Jason Pierce alongside regular collaborator Mark Lanegan....full text