Isobelle Campbell & Mark Lanegan

Every yin needs a yang but does every angelic twee-pop princess really require a whisky-soused vagabond? Well, judging by Isobelle Campbell & Mark Lanegan’s immaculate debut LP Ballad Of The Broken Seas, the answer is a resounding yes. And if tonight’s Liquid Room performance is anything to go by we should all be seeking out our paradoxical partner. Despite the apparent incompatability of the two performers, their on-stage chemistry is electrifying; Campbell glances bashfully towards the towering American troubadour as his smoke-haggard lungs crackle over the country-soused twangs of "(Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me?" and the luscious "Honey I’m Feeling Lonely". Amidst a Murder Ballads-esque shiver of bittersweet canticles, Lanegan’s baritonal growl cradles Campbell’s heavenly whispers with an un-subsiding protectiveness found only in the arms of weather-weary lovers. Utterly engrossing and tantalisingly entwined, it seems Campbell and Lanegan go hand in hand as perfectly as the yin and the yang.