Mark Lanegan Documents His Life in New Book, Album

Mark Lanegan affirms that every song on his forthcoming album Straight Songs of Sorrow (currently slated to come out May 8) references a specific episode or person in his memoir Sing Backwards and Weep, which is currently scheduled to arrive in bookstores ten days earlier, on April 28 via Da Capo Press.

“Writing the book, I didn’t get catharsis,” Lanegan confides. “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 also boasts an impressive and varied group of players, notably John Paul Jones, Warren Ellis (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds), Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs and Lanegan’s partner in Gutter Twins), Ed Harcourt, Mark Morton (Lamb of God), Adrean Utley (Portishead), Jack Bates (Peter Hook’s bass-playing son) and Simon Bonney (Crime & the City Solution).

Photo by Travis Keller.