Densely layered, with an elegant construction, Black Dub doesn’t start out all that much differently from your average recording by uber-hip producer Daniel Lanois. Then something welcomely dangerous, almost feral, happens.
Lanois — famous for his work with U2, Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel, among others — is the first voice you hear, backed by the respected jazz drummer Brian Blade (Joni Mitchell, Wayne Shorter) and bassist Daryl Johnson (Emmylou Harris). But moments later, Black Dub gains a new stride with the arrival of 20-something singer Trixie Whitley — daughter of doomed blues-rock talent Chris Whitley, struck down by lung cancer in 2005.
Her brooding vocal tears “Love Lives” down to a haunted set of two-by-fours. Equal parts Janis Joplin and Etta James, Trixie Whitley brings a delightfully unmannered, country realism to Black Dub.
“I Believe in You,” in direct counterpoint to its bouyant, reggae-inflected signature by Johnson, gives Whitley a first-take chance to dive deeper into a husky, low levee moan — strongly recalling the Yellow Moon sessions Lanois recorded two decades ago in New Orleans with the Neville Brothers.
When Whitley sings “I want to write your name down on every wall,” it’s not a swooning cliche. Instead, her lonely anguish is palpable.
“Last Time,” meanwhile, sounds like a post-modern Stax track, with a shouting testimony from Whitley and these tangy Delta-soul riffs pasted over multi-track samples, rather than the traditional Jamaican spin dubs.
Then there’s “Surely,” a raw-boned ballad that was cut live — and, in keeping, becomes the most definitive showcase yet for Whitley’s darkly captivating passions. “Surely, you were meant to mine,” she repeats, then repeats again — and each time, it sounds different. Like a statement, like a plea, like a recrimination. She’s a wonder.
Lanois — who first went to Jamaica 15 years ago to record with reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, and has kept a place there ever since — seems emboldened by the challenge.
He returns to the humid majesty of his best solo work on the instrumental “Slow Baby.” “Canaan,” a series of searching questions with Lanois again on lead vocals, has the hollow, ringing guitar of his modest solo hit “The Maker” and the storyteller’s penchant of his late-1980s work with The Band’s Robbie Robertson.
But its “Silverado” that best achieves Lanois’ stated goal of melding flesh and metal in his new studio experiments. An initial beat-box backing track is augmented with a series of sharp fills by Blade, then Whitley cuts in between with a perfectly wrought lyric about kindred spirits.
As with many gutsy experiments, there are opportunities missed.
Lanois lifts a live rhythm track by Blade, then paints in broad impressionistic guitar strokes to kick off a highly anticipated update of Tenor Saw’s reggae hit “Ring the Alarm.” It seemed to point to deeper revelations from this intriging blend of textured rock, R&B grit and island beats. Unfortunately, this is that rare time when Whitley’s vocal falls short, coming off more sing-songy than dub.
Her vocal style is a still-coalescing thing, like a plume of smoke that needs time to spread out. There are moments when she goes too far, pushing her voice to uncomfortable places, risking everything to connect. But Whitley only sounds more real in those times when she falters, more emotionally available to the work.
In this way, Black Dub fits in neatly with the other project Lanois was working on after a scary motorcycle wreck, Neil Young’s “Le Noise,” fraying the edges of his studio craft into the atmospheric (and occasionally, the surreal), without letting go of the human dimension required of every great song.
Lanois understands that his still-ascending interest in tone-poem experimentation needs a ground wire. Whitley, like Young before her, provides that here.
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