My recommendations 2006:Ballad of the Broken Seas by Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: Ballad of the Broken Seas
V2 3/7/2006

When news broke that Isobel Campbell, formerly of Belle & Sebastian, and Mark Lanegan, former Screaming Tree and current Queen of the Stone Age, were recording a collaborative album, the pairing seemed so incongruous that the result seemed preordained to be a distaster or a masterpiece. Luckily for everyone, their offspring runs closer to the latter. Whereas most duet albums emphasize the complementarity of two voices, Campbell's and Lanegan's seem so perpendicular to one another that it's hard to imagine that they could have been breathing the same atmosphere. Campbell, ghostly and distant, seems to haunt the alcoholic delusions of gravelly and careworn Lanegan. The gulf between them takes on its own character, overshadowing them both. Ballad of the Broken Seas is a troubling and disturbingly seductive experience.