April 27, 2011

Album Review: Mick Harvey - 'Sketches From The Book Of The Dead'

A stirring topic that doesn't quite conjure an emotive response

5 / 10 The first solo offering from former Bad Seed man Harvey since he ended his association with Nick Cave (he’s worked with PJ Harvey on ‘Let England Shake’ in the meantime) is – quelle surprise – a death-rattling bit of doomy, country-tinged singer-songwriterdom centred around the theme of absent friends.

Sadly, a lack of focus in melody and structure means it’s not quite as atmospheric as Mick seems to think, and the doleful likes of ‘The Ballad Of Jay Givens’, with its “scraggy gum trees”, has neither the drama nor the substance of his work with others.

Duncan Gillespie

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