Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan

This unlikely twosome seem too ludicrously incompatible to inspire any musical alchemy: She brought extra twee-ness to Belle and Sebastian's twee-est years, and he growled through grunge as the lead Screaming Tree. But when she writes the songs -- dark, deliciously dreary stories of yore -- and coos in the background as he spreads the vocal molasses, there's an audible click. Like a scruffier Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra or, maybe more appropriately, Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue. Nearly every song on their second collaboration -- but particularly the brooding "Salvation" and sweetly melancholy "Trouble" -- reveals gorgeous comfort in the juxtaposition.

By Josh Modell