ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN Hawk (2010 UK 12-track LP vinyl set - Recorded in such disparate places as California, Texas, Louisiana, Denmark, Edinburgh and her native Glasgow, 'Hawk' is a pan-continental affair. There's folk, country, blues, gospel, dream-pop and a fair spoonful of Southern soul. Written, produced and arranged by Campbell, 'Hawk' finds Isobel rejoined by Mark Lanegan [Screaming Trees, Queens Of The Stone Age]. Ace American songwriter Willy Mason guests on two songs, while there's not only a wider sweep of styles there's often a more urgent approach. 'Get Behind Me' and 'You Won't Let Me Down' are cases in point. A barrelling tune with no brakes, 'Get Behind Me' is reminiscent of Dylan's more blustery blow-outs on 'Highway 61 Revisited'. 'You Won't Let Me Down Again' sounds more like an old desert song, complete with deliciously twangy guitar. Campbell also emerges as a truly accomplished writer of old-school ballads. She's certainly never composed anything quite so genre-specific as 'Come Undone', which feels like a lost Southern treasure from the '60s, the kind of song Irma Thomas might once have torched her soul into. One of the many other highlights is 'Time Of The Season', wherein a lovelorn couple lament a lost Christmas)