Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan @ O2 ABC, 8 Sep

 

There has always been something mildly perverse when it comes to the sight of the innocently framed Isobel Campbell sitting side by side with the vagrantly-suited, furiously-browed Mark Lanegan. However, when Campbell’s sweet tones have met the sub-baritone rasp of Lanegan, it has largely been a decadently desirable meeting of heaven and hell. With their third album, Hawk, released this month, the duo are becoming less of a collaborative collision of Grunge Godfather and Glaswegian girl done good, more a full-bodied, melancholy country amalgam, and with Campbell’s song-writing prowess going from strength to strength, there’s no better time to savour this duo. [Paul Neeson]