Track Listing

1. O Love Is Teasin'
2. Willows Song
3. Yearning
4. James
5. Hori Horo
6. Reynardine
7. Milkwhite Sheets
8. Cachel Wood
9. Beggar Wiseman Or Thief
10. Loving Hannah
11. Are You Going To Leave Me
12. Over The Wheat And The Barley
13. Thursday's Child

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31419 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
There are plenty who would (and indeed do) dine out on a Mercury Music Prize nomination to the point where Gillian McKeith appearing from behind a trifle wagging her bitter, spindly finger would seem a distinct probability, but the unerringly prolific Isobel Campbell didn't so much as take her coat off. We're talking an hors d'oeuvre at best, or a serving of tapas; we're too many works into an esteemed career for a starter metaphor to be useful. A matter of months after Ballad Of The Broken Seas, her textured collaboration with gravel-voiced US bluesman Mark Lanegan, and even less since it swept into the public consciousness with a Mercury endorsement, the next instalment in her increasingly mystical story tumbles effortlessly out of her.

As the years go by Campbell seems intent on refining the nature of her creative output, like watching a flower time-lapse back to seed. We're a long distance now from the DIY orchestrations of former employers Belle & Sebastian. The aesthetics of this album are similar to the last, yet without the tarred gravity of Lanegan's input Milk White Sheets is almost weightless in its delicacy, almost pagan in its simplicity. "Loving Hannah" is testament, her dainty voice and her dainty voice alone chasing the breeze with a trad-folk momentum. "Are You Going To Leave Me" adds crude drum rumblings and Harmonium groans, and the album explores further embryonic relationships between cello, slide and plucked guitars, basic hypnotic beats and her slight fairy vocal. Dreamy like the Cocteau Twins setting up in the 16th Century. --James Berry

CD Description
'Milkwhite Sheets' is the third album from former Belle AndSebastian member Isobel Campbell and was written and recorded while recording the Mercury Music Prize nominated 'BalladOf The Broken Seas' with ex-Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan. Featuring a selection of traditional and self-pennedsongs, the album is a low-key affair of acoustic psychedelic folk inspired by the likes of Shirley Collins, Anne Briggs, Devendra Banhart and Espers.

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Customer Reviews

Folk-based companion to Ballad of the Broken Seas
Milkwhite Sheets is the rapid follow up to the Mercury-nominated album Ballad of the Broken Seas which Isobel Campbell recorded with her band that includes former Soup Dragon Jim McCulloch (who also worked with Campbell on his own Green Peppers project) and the timeless Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, QOTSA, solo act, general growl for hire etc). During the period when Lanegan was completing his vocal contributions for Ballad...across the Atlantic, Campbell was in down time and set about recording Milkwhite Sheets.

This album isn't that close to Ballad, anyone expecting a similar record should probably look elsewhere, it is similar to Ballad in that it nods to more traditional music and has a gothic quality. Twisted gothic folk maybe? Campbell was exploring traditional folk, citing Shirley Collins, Jean Ritchie and Anne Briggs here, as well as nodding to the influence of the Harry Smith Folk Anthology in interviews. The cover version of Willow's Song from the soundtrack to the Wicker Man is another cue - though I feel a touch of the Velvets in the version here! Campbell is certainly moving away from the fey indie aspects you would associate with her former outfit The Gentle Waves and her tenure in Belle & Sebastian - there are no songs about 27 year old librarians with orthopaedic shoes and a dog-eared copy of Look Homeward Angel ! here!!!!

It is possible that Milkwhite Sheets will reveal itself with further listening, though having listened to it several times already I feel it's more like an e.p. - a few tracks seem slight and the instrumentals equally so - though both James and McCulloch's title track are close to the instrumental on Ballad of the Broken Seas.

Opener O Love is Teasin' is quite lovely, though Campbell's vocals are a little too girly sometimes - I can't say I'm mad on this genre, though love Vashti Bunyan's Just Another Diamond Day, which parts of this album reminds me of (Cachel Wood especially - probably too Vashti for its own good!). Hori Horo is quite charming and the acapella Loving Hannah is quite bold - though I was hoping for an effect like that on Bunyan's Window Over the Bay. The best is probably left for last with the epic Thursday's Child, which features former Smashing Pumpkin and underrated solo act James Iha on guitar - it feels like a folk Velvet Underground and seems to be the most interesting track here. It probably could have appeared on the Lanegan-collaboration and I think is the kind of thing Campbell should pursue on her next record. There's even a charming brief hidden track that might be called Goodnight...

Milkwhite Sheets isn't bad, it's one of those nice night time records like Bavarian Tea Bread, Blacklisted, Hips & Makers & So Tonight That I Might See - but set against recent releases in similar climes by Espers, Joanna Newsom, Nina Nastasia & Laura Veirs it pales somewhat (a bit like the last Beth Orton record). Nothing really offensive here, but lost in comparison to songs like Brad Haunts a Party & Only Skin. It will be interesting to see where Campbell goes next; personally I'd love to hear a live album from her recent tour with Lanegan & ban, since a lot of the songs improved in their live form!

Beautiful......
Wow...this is different. I'm not a big folk fan but as a huge fan of her earlier work, I couldn't not buy it. I'm so glad I did. What a voice.
"Are you going to leave me" is one of the most beautiful arrangements I've heard in a very long time.

What next for her next album? She may know but I for one,can't wait.

Low key yes, but still a very nice piece of work
If you like Campbell's previous work, then this will be a welcome addition to your collection. It is a smart, neat work, that includes some songs off the promo cd "O Love is teasin'". Many works are traditional songs given the Campbell treatment, and what a delicious treatment it is. It has been described as 'low key', but don't be fooled into thinking this means it is weak, it is not. A very fine contribution indeed.