Album Review: Mark Lanegan - Houston: Publishing Demos 2002

Demos is something of a misnomer for title of this record.

That descriptor usually denotes unformed musical ideas, the raw skeletons that later evolve into fully-fledged songs. The tracks on Houston... are more like reprises — alternate histories of the songs that came to define Lanegan's post-Screaming Trees career. The subdued, folk-tinged When It's In You (Methamphetamine Blues) bears only a passing resemblance to the visceral guitar romp that is Methamphetamine Blues from Lanegan's 2004 record, Bubblegum, but like the rest of this record, it's worthwhile as an insightful document into the reinvention of one of alt-rock's great unsung frontmen.