*** Mark Lanegan

I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU

(Sub Pop)

Mark Lanegan has a voice rich with trouble. It served principally as texture amid the post-psychedelia of his former ensemble, Washington's Screaming Trees. Only toward the end, and on the occasion of their singular brush with pop stardom (the Singles single "I Nearly Lost You"), did Lanegan step to the fore. By then he was well embarked on twin trails, as a solo artist (1990's stark The Winding Sheet, 1994's starker Whiskey for the Holy Ghost) recording with former Dinosaur Jr bassist Mike Johnson and as an addict.

Ultimately, as 1998's Scraps at Midnight chronicled, the music won out. Barely. Still working within the muted grays that are his distinctive métier, Lanegan's new, all-covers long-player celebrates the widely varied music he loves as only a gifted singer can, moving easily across years and genres, from Gun Club's Jeffrey Lee Pierce to Bobby Bland to Buck Owens, from the Leaving Trains to Fred Neil to Eddie Floyd. Working with a rotating cast of Northwest players, the album places Lanegan's voice within a variety of acoustic settings, expanding beyond Johnson's sparse accompaniment. But it is his voice, suddenly tender, assured, and newly flexible, that makes these carefully chosen songs soar into the good night.

-- Grant Alden