Scraps at Midnight is the third solo album by former Screaming Trees

Screaming Trees

Screaming Trees was an American rock band formed in Ellensburg, Washington in 1985 by vocalist Mark Lanegan, guitarist Gary Lee Conner, bass player Van Conner and drummer Mark Pickerel. Pickerel had been replaced by Barrett Martin by the time the band reached its most successful period...

 vocalist Mark Lanegan

Mark Lanegan

Mark Lanegan is an American rock musician and songwriter. Lanegan began his music career in the 1980s, forming the grunge group Screaming Trees with Gary Lee Conner, Van Conner and Mark Pickerel. During his time in the band Lanegan would start a low-key solo career...

. It was produced by Mark Lanegan and longtime collaborator Mike Johnson.

The album opens with "Hospital Roll Call," which many interpret as a sly reference to a hospital room number that the singer occupied during one of his stints in rehab. The Cohenesque "Hotel" expands on this theme ("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"). "Last One In The World" is rumored to be a dedication to friend and collaborator Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain

Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...

, who committed suicide in 1994.

Scraps At Midnight could arguably be considered the final installment of a trilogy of albums (preceded by The Winding Sheet

The Winding Sheet

The Winding Sheet is an album by American musician Mark Lanegan that was released in 1990. It was Lanegan's first solo work, and is notable in its departure from the characteristic sound of Screaming Trees, the band he fronted from 1985 until 2000...

and Whiskey for the Holy Ghost

Whiskey for the Holy Ghost

Whiskey for the Holy Ghost is the second solo album by former Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan. The album builds upon the roots music foundation that Lanegan had established with his debut The Winding Sheet...

) which feature the songwriters'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

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

), 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."

Track listing

1. "Hospital Roll Call" - 2:58
2. "Hotel" - 3:10
3. "Stay" - 3:29
4. "Bell Black Ocean" - 2:43
5. "Last One in the World" - 4:24
6. "Wheels" - 4:35
7. "Waiting on a Train" - 4:32
8. "Day and Night" - 3:16
9. "Praying Ground" - 3:07
10. "Because of This" - 8:19

Personnel

• John Agnello - Engineer, mixing
• John Burton - Engineer
• Greg Calbi - Mastering
• Terry Date
  Terry Date
  Terry Date is an American record producer and engineer, specializing in the rock and metal genres...
  
   - Engineer
• Tad Doyle
  Tad (band)
  Tad was an American grunge band from Seattle, Washington led by Tad Doyle. Among the first of the many bands which came out of Seattle in the grunge era, Tad was notable for the fact that its music had a noticeable 1970s metal influence, rather than the punk which influenced most other grunge bands...
  
   - Drums
• Jack Endino
  Jack Endino
  Jack Endino is a producer and musician based in Seattle. Long associated with Seattle label Sub Pop and the grunge movement, Endino worked on seminal albums from bands such as Mudhoney, Soundgarden, and Nirvana...
  
   Engineer
• Mike Johnson
  Mike Johnson (bassist)
  Mike Johnson is an American songwriter and bass guitarist. He was born in Grants Pass, Oregon and played in Eugene, Oregon punk band Snakepit from 1984-1989. He replaced Lou Barlow in Dinosaur Jr in 1991 and played with the band live and on its recordings from 1991 to 1998. Concurrently he...
  
   - Guitar, producer
• Jeff Kleinsmith - Artwork
• Mark Lanegan - Vocals, guitar, producer
• J Mascis
  J Mascis
  J Mascis is an American musician, best known as the singer, guitarist and songwriter for Dinosaur Jr.. In 2011, he was ranked in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.- Biography :...
  
  - Piano
• Charles Peterson - Photography
• Kenneth Sherwood - Design
• Phil Sparks - Bass (Upright)
• Terry Yohn - Harmonica
• Mike Stinette - Saxophone
• Liz Burns - Voice