Grunge, with few exceptions, has not aged well. Those of its figures who haven’t faded away entirely have mostly settled into a cycle of producing overblown anachronistic rock that might shift units, but doesn’t inspire or challenge (see Dave Grohl, Chris Cornell).

Fortunately, ex-Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan doesn’t make these mistakes in his solo work, instead placing himself within much older, more timeless blues and folk traditions. The low, mournful timbre to his voice invites comparison with musicians such as Nick Cave and Tom Waits, and he doesn’t shy away from this inheritance.

Without Isobel Campbell’s sweetening influence that was found on their collaborative albums, Blues Funeral takes on a great sense of lonely personal lament; this is an album populated with heavy blues dirges that have titles like ‘Bleeding Muddy Water’ and ‘St Louis Elegy.’

But the interest of this record lies in its not being straightforward. Opening track and single ‘Gravedigger’s Song’ plays with a similar mood to the rest of the album, but its throbbing drums and distorted bass backbone clearly takes a lot from his time playing with those bastions of stoner rock, Queens Of The Stone Age.

Later, just as we might begin to feel complacent with the established aesthetic, there’s a surprise in the form of the upbeat synth line and disco beat of ‘Ode To Sad Disco.’ As Lanegan’s vocals pull us back into a familiar gloom, there is just enough discontinuity to keep the album fresh but not fragmentary.

Lanegan intelligently plays with multi-referential styles and self-aware song titles to place himself within a gloomy lone troubadour archetype which the album doesn’t quite fit. This may sound like a bit of a knowing joke, but who cares when it sounds this good?