From the vaults: The Afghan Whigs – Gentlemen (1993)
It’s a disturbing cover: two kids – one in bed, one on the edge of the bed, restless and loveless – displaying all the pathos, all the quiet despair of a dying a relationship. Silent, but deadly – just like the music. Part Nick Cave, part The Doors, part Creedence, The Afghan Whigs fourth album was a concept record based upon one man’s failure in a relationship. And it was dark. Take ‘Be Sweet’:
Now that I'm ashamed, it burns
But the weight is off
Now that you're out of the way
I turn and I can walk
You showed no sympathy, my love
And this was no place for you and me to walk alone
Ugly and honest was what Greg Dulli did best. Stuck somewhere between hippy and misanthrope, he propelled a sound not of fury or rage, but of the sense of something dark being restrained and accruing menace in the process. It’s all down to THAT voice – like honey rubbed into old wounds. ‘When We Two Parted’ – a lament on love stretched to the point of abuse – is as eerily Byronic as the title suggests, whilst ‘Debonair’s’ take on lust sounds dusty and creaking and ‘Gentlemen’ is the sound which Queens Of The Stone Age have made a career of: part funk, part funk, and a lot of blues. The guitars don’t thrust or strut – they interlock delicately, capturing space and creating a sound which is vast.
It’s an uneasy listen – tense, and yet sexy. But it’s honest and intelligent, and you wonder why more REM fans weren’t listening to this in 1993. If you’ve never hear this band, you need to – the sound is as affirming as it is challenging.
It’s a disturbing cover: two kids – one in bed, one on the edge of the bed, restless and loveless – displaying all the pathos, all the quiet despair of a dying a relationship. Silent, but deadly – just like the music. Part Nick Cave, part The Doors, part Creedence, The Afghan Whigs fourth album was a concept record based upon one man’s failure in a relationship. And it was dark. Take ‘Be Sweet’:
Now that I'm ashamed, it burns
But the weight is off
Now that you're out of the way
I turn and I can walk
You showed no sympathy, my love
And this was no place for you and me to walk alone
Ugly and honest was what Greg Dulli did best. Stuck somewhere between hippy and misanthrope, he propelled a sound not of fury or rage, but of the sense of something dark being restrained and accruing menace in the process. It’s all down to THAT voice – like honey rubbed into old wounds. ‘When We Two Parted’ – a lament on love stretched to the point of abuse – is as eerily Byronic as the title suggests, whilst ‘Debonair’s’ take on lust sounds dusty and creaking and ‘Gentlemen’ is the sound which Queens Of The Stone Age have made a career of: part funk, part funk, and a lot of blues. The guitars don’t thrust or strut – they interlock delicately, capturing space and creating a sound which is vast.
It’s an uneasy listen – tense, and yet sexy. But it’s honest and intelligent, and you wonder why more REM fans weren’t listening to this in 1993. If you’ve never hear this band, you need to – the sound is as affirming as it is challenging.
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