MILKWHITE Sheets is the second Isobel Campbell album of the year, recorded in the lull while American grunge survivor Mark Lanegan added his Lee Hazlewood to her Nancy Sinatra on the Mercury-nominated Ballad Of The Broken Seas.
The ever curious Campbell, erstwhile cello player in Belle And Sebastian and later influenced by European cinema soundtracks, has found new inspiration in folk outsiders Shirley Collins and Anne Briggs and Current 93's avant-folk improviser David Tibet.
Her murky set of turbulent traditional songs and tender yet deadly-dark Campbell originals has a lingering eerie quietude, and a menacing glint of steel protrudes from those silken milkwhite sheets, especially on the a cappella Loving Hannah. "The guy who mastered my album usually works on death metal records; he said it sounds satanic'," said a flattered Campbell.
Scary, but true.
- Win the CD
Courtesy of V2, The Press has five Isobel Campbell, Milkwhite Sheets CDs to be won.
Question: In which Scottish group did Isobel play cello?
Send your answer to Charles Hutchinson on a postcard marked Isobel Competition. See Smokey Robinson Competition for entry details.
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