Isobel Campbell?

Cello belle: What do you get when you join a cello-playing Scottish indie-chick with a gritty-voiced American grunge- head? You get the new album by ex-Belle & Sebastian girl Isobel Campbell and current Queens of the Stone Age dude Mark Lanegan, the most unlikely collaboration since Nick'n'Kylie got it together where the wild roses grow. Ballad of the Broken Seas is the latest album by the Caledonian chanteuse following her departure from Belle & Sebastian in 2002. As cello player and backing vocalist with the Scots indie-pop collective, Campbell appeared on such essential B&S albums as Tigermilk and The Boy with the Arab Strap; the latter album saw her make her debut as a songwriter and lead vocalist - she sang on her own composition, Is it Wicked Not to Care?; she also co-wrote Belle & Sebastian's biggest hit, Legal Man.

Wave goodbye: Devastated students across the British Isles cried into their pot noodles when Campbell quit Belle & Sebastian in 2002. But one band was never going to contain this stylish, '60s-obsessed girl with the gamine looks of Jean Seberg and a talent for creating sweet-voiced songs of love and betrayal. While still in B&S, Campbell had her own musical side-project, The Gentle Waves, releasing two albums of pleasantly smooth orchestral pop. In 2002 she got together with jazzman Bill Wells for an album of Billie Holiday covers, then released her first album under her own name, 2003's Amorino. When asked what inspired the album, she answered, "French girl singers, psychedelia, Jimmy Webb, Antonio Carlos Jobim, The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and, of course, the most universal of all themes even in these cynical times. Love."

Lanegan's call: So, how did a swinging Scots indie-girl end up in a studio with the croaker from Queens of the Stone Age? The pair met when QOTSA were playing a gig in Glasgow, and tough guy Lanegan admitted to having a soft spot for Campbell's gentle, girlie pop. We could make beautiful music together, he wooed Campbell before heading back to LA. Campbell took him at his word, and wrote a number of songs with Lanegan's voice in mind. "His voice is rough and a lot of people say mine is angelic," says Campbell. "It's the two sides of the coin, really. It's very unlikely. It's a very feminine/masculine thing as well."

Ramble on: The pair worked on the project by e-mail and old-fashioned post, Campbell sending tracks over to LA for Lanegan to sing on. They then met up in LA to finish the album, which features a Lanegan-penned track, Revolver, and a "quite nasty" version of Hank Williams's Rambling Man. Ballad of the Broken Seas is out on February 3rd on V2 Records, and Campbell plays live at the Sugar Club, Dublin on February 18th.