With Animals


With Animals might be a predominantly bleak work, but within its crumbling walls of decay, there’s considerable beauty to be found.

With Animals is the work of two men with great talent embracing what they do best, and with their skills elevating their work to a new level; this is collaboration between musical peers at its best.

This is essentially raw, acoustic, heartfelt, a 21st-century blues, but heavily treated, clouded with atmospheres, immersed in dub, stretched across the skies, ground finely into the soil. [Sep 2018, p.86]

With Animals reminds me of Lanegan’s work with Isobel Campbell, more acoustic, less bombastic, less ready to take you by the throat than his solo albums, but nonetheless quietly revelatory. It’s hard to tell, really, where he leaves off and Garwood steps in, but that’s because they’re so well matched and equally focused on a singular, spooky vibe.

Consistently excellent, the album reaches its zenith with “My Shadow Life”, a simple love song from out of the gloom: “On my life I swear that I love you/My shadow life, I swear that I love/I love you”. [Sep 2018, p.55]

Both parties in this collaboration have been firing off great records at will lately: here's another. [Sep 2018, p.88]

A true meeting of minds then, and one that's deeply affecting throughout. [Sep 2018, p.119]

It's uncomplicated but it achieves a lot, and that's With Animals in a nutshell. [Sep 2018, p.34]

The trick to With Animals is its brevity, as only two of the album's 12 tracks surpass the four-minute mark.