Scraps at Midnight is the third solo album by Mark Lanegan. It was produced by Lanegan and longtime collaborator Mike Johnson, and was released in July 21, 1998. Scraps at Midnight could arguably be considered the final installment of a trilogy of albums (preceded by The Winding Sheet and Whiskey for the Holy Ghost) which feature the songwriter’s interpretation of American roots music set to troubling lyrics that explore themes of loss, sin, and redemption. In a 2004 interview (currently available on YouTube), Lanegan stated:
“That’s always been my goal since I started…It’s sort of been my obsession to make records that had the feeling of the blues, the spirit of them, I think, but without being what we’d consider to be traditional blues, or twelve bar bar band blues, which is a boring, outdated mode and I’m not interested in it. But I am interested in the real feelings behind it.”
The album was recorded at the Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree, California. Opener Hospital Roll Call and the Cohenesque Hotel expands on the theme of self-abuse (“Hear the roars and the hush and the cold chill of time, and I’m happy murdering my mind”), while the gentle Bell Black Ocean and Stay deal with themes of love and perseverance (“Livin’s not hard, it’s just not easy, always keepin’ the dogs off”).
In his 2017 book I Am the Wolf: Lyrics and Writings, Lanegan elaborates on several of the compositions and clears up some misconceptions, writing that Last One in the World was not written about Kurt Cobain, as some have speculated, but:
“For my friend Layne Staley, who was still living at the time. I loved them both as family:
Kurt was like a little brother, Layne like a twin.” He also relates that the minimal lyrics to “Hospital Roll Call” came from “an unpleasant eight-day stay at a decrepit infirmary hallway in Montreal. Sixteen wasn’t the room number, just what was written in black marker on the wall above my gurney.”
In a 2012 interview, Lanegan expressed mixed feelings about the album:
“If I heard it today I’d totally cringe, though there are a couple of songs on there, one of which I still play acoustically ‘Because of This’ that I think are really good.”
Tracklist:
- Hospital Roll Call (Lanegan)
- Hotel (Lanegan)
- Stay
- Bell Black Ocean (Lanegan, Johnson, Keni Richards)
- Last One in the World
- Wheels (Lanegan)
- Waiting on a Train
- Day and Night (Lanegan)
- Praying Ground
- Because of This (Lanegan, Johnson, Richards, Paul Solger Dana)
Credits
Mark Lanegan: vocals, guitar, producer
Mike Johnson: guitar, producer
Dave Catching
Fred Drake
Keni Richards
Paul Solger Dana
Additional personnel
Liz Burns: voice (on 7)
Tad Doyle: drums (on 6)
J Mascis: piano (on 6)
Phil Sparks: upright bass (on 6, 8)
Mike Stinette: saxophone (on 6)
Terry Yohn: harmonica (on 8)
Technical personnel
John Agnello: mixing; engineer (on 8,9)
John Burton: engineer (on 9)
Greg Calbi: mastering
Terry Date: engineer (on 6, 8)
Jack Endino: engineer (on 6)
Charles Peterson: photography
Judith Schaechter: artwork
Kenneth Sherwood: design
Mark William Lanegan (November 25, 1964 – February 22, 2022)
