Arkive

The release features a prominent cast of guest musicians, among which are PJ Harvey, Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri of Queens of the Stone Age, Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs, and Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin of Guns N' Roses.. The favorably reviewed album is his most commercially successful to date, reaching number 39 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart.

Upon its release in August 2004, Bubblegum peaked at #39 on the Independent Albums chart. The album granted Lanegan his first commercially successful album. Bubblegum peaked at #19 in Italy, #28 in Belgium, #30 in Norway, #35 in Finland, #36 in Netherlands, #43 in the United Kingdom, #67 in Germany and #189 in France.

The single "Hit the City" peaked at 76 on the British singles chart and is Lanegan's first charted single.

Allmusic's Mark Deming described the album: "With the Screaming Trees an increasingly distant memory and his brief tenure with Queens of the Stone Age seemingly over and done, Mark Lanegan appears to have well and truly become a solo artist, and while the dark and blues-shot introspections of Whiskey for the Holy Ghost and The Winding Sheet felt like a respite from Lanegan's usual musical diet of the time, Bubblegum sounds like an effort to fuse the nocturnal atmospherics of his solo work with the impressive brain/brawn ratio of his better-known bands." awarding the album four out of five.

The Guardian's Alexis Petridis wrote the record was "Lanegan once called his bluesy solo work "death dirges". From its matte black cover inwards, Bubblegum never stints on the dark stuff. There is drug-induced despair and failed romance, with music to match: sibilant drum machines that recall 1970s art-punks Suicide, dolefully minimal guitar figures, shrieking feedback and the unmistakable wail of PJ Harvey on backing vocals. At its bleakest and least tuneful, Bubblegum is powerful enough to take your breath away. In every sense, Bubblegum is a staggering record" Petridis awarded the album four out of five stars.