Alt-rock stalwart Mark Lanegan unveiled a chilling new song, “Bleed All Over,” from his upcoming album, Straight Songs of Sorrow, set to arrive May 8th.
The track boasts an icy post-punk edge thanks to the tight skip of the drums, the queasy synth trails during the verse and rubbery plunks during the hook. Anchoring the song with some semblance of warmth, though, is the constant strum of an acoustic guitar and Lanegan’s resonant vocals as he pleads, “Baby, baby, baby don’t you say it’s over/Now that I ain’t got a dime/Baby, baby, baby I’m a bleed all over/Just one lonely last time.”
“Bleed All Over” marks the second offering off Straight Songs of Sorrow, following the seven-minute “Skeleton Key.” Straight Songs of Sorrow follows Lanegan’s 2019 LP, Something’s Knocking, and will serve as a musical accompaniment of sorts to his upcoming memoir, Sing Backwards and Weep, which will be published April 28th.
“Writing the book, I didn’t get catharsis,” Lanegan said of the memoir and new album in a statement. “All I got was a Pandora’s box full of pain and misery. I went way in and remembered shit I’d put away 20 years ago. But I started writing these songs the minute I was done, and I realized there was a depth of emotion because they were all linked to memories from this book. It was a relief to suddenly go back to music. Then I realized that was the gift of the book: these songs. I’m really proud of this record.”
Straight Songs of Sorrow boasts a long list of collaborators including Lanegan’s Gutter Twins bandmate Greg Dulli, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, Lamb of God’s Mark Morton, the Bad Seeds’ Warren Ellis, Portishead’s Adrian Utley, Ed Harcourt, Peter Hook’s son Jack Bates and Lanegan’s wife, Shelley Brien.