The Mark Lanegan Band Somebody's Knocking 2LP (Pink Vinyl)

Ten Bands re-issue their albums on limited edition pink vinyl, all for one cause. This is the 6th year for the initiative that has raised over $200,000 for Gilda's Club NYC, an organization that provides community support for both those diagnosed with cancer and their caretakers. It is named after comedian Gilda Radner, who passed away from cancer at the age of 43 in 1989.

From the opening bars of "Disbelief Suspension" onwards, it's clear that Somebody's Knocking is an album made by someone deeply obsessed with how music - with all its primal, spiritual healing power - truly penetrates the soul. As a result, there's joy in the music, as if created from a perfect set of inspirations smashed and grabbed from God's own record shop. Some of the influences are oblique, others direct and fully respectful. From the Raw Power-esque garage metal grind of that opener to "Letter Never Sent"'s rocket-powered take on Love-era kaleidoscope-psych, through the pensive subterranean murk of "Dark Disco Jag" and on to "Playing Nero"'s sun-bleached riff on Joy Division's "Atmosphere", there's the glee of infatuation running deep in the tracks. And, in some ways, that display of infatuation serves to change the very perception of Lanegan the artist - this album being less the tale of a brooding, crepuscular rock'n'roll veteran and more that of someone consumed by a lifelong love of words and sound fused together.

With that perception shift in mind, one of the most remarkable moments on Somebody's Knocking is "Penthouse High" - a track that positively blooms, sounding like a love letter to imperial phase New Order. For Lanegan, it signals a return to one of his formative musical loves from a time even before he joined Screaming Trees.

"I've always been into electronic music since I was a kid," he says. "I think the reason those elements have become more obvious in my music is that my tastes have changed as I've grown older. The bulk of what I listen to now is electronic. Alain Johannes and I had actually written 'Penthouse High' for Gargoyle (the 2017 album the Guardian stated saw 'Lanegan in the form of his career') but then it didn't really fit on that record. I have been a huge fan of New Order and Depeche Mode forever and have wanted to do a song along those lines for a long time - a blatantly catchy, old-school dance-type song."

Lyrically, Somebody's Knocking sets the listener off down multiple rabbit holes, painting deeply psychedelic pictures where someone's "drip, drip, dripping acid out of the dropper" ("Disbelief Suspension") or where "the hounds are behind me/footsteps following/you know you can't find me/I'm miles from the crime scene" on the monumentally addictive "Stitch It Up". Like Lanegan's best work, Somebody's Knocking tells its own stories and weaves its own wonders, conjuring up feverish hallucinogenic visions to sit atop roughly hewn rock and glassy, brilliant bright electronics. And then it leaves them to penetrate their own ways right down to our deepest, darkest roots.