The Afghan Whigs rattle from the traps once again. With the devil on their tails.
In Spades, while not a concept album, is a discourse on “how memory and life can blur together.” That’s according to the press-release.
Emerging in the grunge era, Greg Dulli and cohorts never really gelled with the aesthetic of the period. Dollops of soul and psychedelia served to distance them from the garage-punk stylings of many of their contemporaries. These influences can be observed on the new album too, with horn sections and slinky grooves augmenting the solid rock foundation.
After the deceptively gentle opener of ‘Birdland’ – hard to know if it’s a reference to the legendary jazz club or the not-so-legendary ’90s indie band – Dulli leads the Whigs through a selection of raucous stompers. From the Stonesy funk of ‘Light As A Feather’ to the Zeppelin-esque swagger of ‘Arabian Heights’, there is no equivocation: this is rock. That said, while the album as a whole exhibits a ferocious passion, they can at times sound disconcertingly like – of all outfits – Coldplay.
The list of bands influenced and inspired by The Afghan Whigs would use up the proscribed word count for this review twice over. As elder statesmen and having suffered the slings and arrows, they still retain the ability to fire on all cylinders and have delivered a record of grace and fervour – in spades.