Mark Lanegan releases Straight Songs Of Sorrow on May 8th via Heavenly Recordings, his memoir Sing Backwards And Weep due to publish on April 28th via Da Capo. Today, Lanegan his latest single shared “Stockholm City Blues”, “A meditation on the remorse code of addiction.

Additionally, Mark Lanegan recently launched ‘The Vault’ an innovative web-based streaming platform powered by Spotify and Apple Music. By connecting to either platform, fans can explore Lanegan’s entire back-catalogue, from the genesis of his recording career in 1984 through to his latest album Somebody’s Knocking. The Vault includes Lanegan’s solo material, his work with Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, Isobel Campbell and Soulsavers, as well as his many other collaborations and guest appearances. The platform lays out each key album with descriptions approved by Lanegan himself, giving fans an opportunity to engage further with this beloved artist’s wide-ranging body of work. The Vault also includes Mark Lanegan playlists created by fellow artists and kindred spirits. Recent contributions have come from Duff McKagen, Liela Moss, Rich Machin (Soulsavers), and Peter Hook and Jack Bates.

Lanegan’s forthcoming memoir Sing Backwards And Weep is a brutal, nerve-shredding read, thanks to Lanegan’s unsparing candor in recounting a journey from troubled youth in eastern Washington, through his drug-stained existence amid the ’90s Seattle rock scene, to an unlikely salvation at the dawn of the 21st century. There’s death and tragedy, yet also humor and hope, thanks to the tenacity which impels its host, even at his lowest moments.

“Writing the book, I didn’t get catharsis,” he chuckles. “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 realised 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.”

Lanegan affirms that every song references a specific episode or person in the book, albeit some more explicitly than others. “Hanging On (For DRC)” is a loving ode to his friend Dylan Carlson, genius progenitor of drone metal and a fellow unlikely survivor of Seattle’s narcotic dramas. “I was always unhappy, and he was the guy who was always smiling, even through my crazy schemes that eventually got both of us into a lot of trouble.”

Mark Lanegan
Straight Songs Of Sorrow
tracklist

1. I Wouldn’t Want To Say
2. Apples From A Tree
3. This Game Of Love
4. Ketamine
5. Bleed All Over
6. Churchbells, Ghosts
7. Internal Hourglass Discussion
8. Stockholm City Blues
9. Skeleton Key
10. Daylight In The Nocturnal House
11. Ballad of a Dying Rover
12. Hanging On (For DRC)
14. At Zero Below
15 . At Eden Lost and Found