With their second album since reuniting in 2012, it's clear that
Afghan Whigs leader
Greg Dulli has decided to give the band's sound an overhaul that's likely to be permanent. One of the more puzzling things about
the Whigs' 2014 comeback LP,
Do to the Beast, was that it didn't sound an awful lot like the band's best-known work, and that's once again the case with 2017's follow-up
In Spades, though both albums have
Dulli and his obsessions written all over them. The songs still dwell on the dark side of the human psyche and the ugly aspects of romantic relationships (a theme
Dulli couldn't abandon if he tried), but musically
Dulli has taken his fusion of R&B and indie rock and retooled it. The proportions feel the same, but the ingredients are fundamentally different, with less emphasis on guitar-based grit, and keyboards and strings taking their place. In short,
Do to the Beast and
In Spades sound more like
Dulli's work with his side project
the Twilight Singers than
the Afghan Whigs, and it's worth noting bassist
John Curley is once again the only other
Whigs veteran in the lineup (and the absence of guitarist
Rick McCollum is a reminder of how fundamental he was to the group's sound in their heyday). That said,
In Spades is a much better
Twilight Singers album than the relative misfire of
Do to the Beast, generating a greater amount of power and evoking a sinister atmosphere that was decidedly overcooked on the previous album. "Arabian Heights," "Demon in Profile," and "Copernicus" diverge from the sound of
Afghan Whigs' masterpieces like
Congregation and
Gentlemen, but the songs connect in the way
Dulli's best stuff does, and if he's chosen to bury his own vocals in the mix, the odd production choice works in this context.
In Spades confirms
Greg Dulli is still a talent worth following, and if this strays from the template of the classic
Afghan Whigs sound, it's not like that group was ever a democracy in the truest sense. It's
Dulli's band, and what he's delivered here honestly satisfies. [
In Spades was also released on LP.] ~ Mark Deming