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Who built the perfect single?

Lets face it, who would have thought that Belle and Sebastian vocalist Isobel Campbell would ever team up with QOTSA/Screaming Trees rocker Mark Lanegan, let alone doing it twice? It’s an unlikely pairing at first glance, but it’s produced some intriguing results.

‘Who Built The Road’ plays Lanegan’s gravelly growl against Campbell’s twee whispers beautifully. Campbell is all glowing light against the dark and brooding Lanegan, both in real life (just look at pictures of them together) and on record. It is essentially a continuation of the pair’s first record together, Ballad of the Broken Seas, which again sees the formula of svengali-like male against delicate female work like a charm. In fact, it’s worked so well as to draw comparisons to Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, or Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra. To me, it’s more Kylie and Nick Cave on a road trip across America with a folk band in tow. It’s just the perfect balance between the flowing melody and centrepiece vocals. And all under three minutes long.

A perfect opening gambit for Campbell and Lanegan’s new album, Sunday at Devil Dirt. Fans of both artists should definitely check this out.