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One might theorize that Afghan Whigs leader Greg Dulli scared himself when he came up with his masterpiece, the searing Gentlemen, way back in 1993. Since that exhilarating and brutally honest examination of gender relations
and the perversity of the male psyche, Dulli and the Whigs have
produced consistently excellent work, though nothing to top that
high-water mark (perhaps, to be fair, nothing could).
Meanwhile the singer-songwriter himself has gone from one trauma to
the next: depression, stomach ailments and drug problems a la
Kurt Cobain, injuries sustained from barroom altercations, and so on.
On this side project, however, Dulli, expertly aided by Whigs alumnus
and Howlin' Maggie frontman Harold Chichester, finally stops raging
against the darkness and makes his peace with it instead. Eschewing
the more raucous, cathartic moments typical of the Whigs, Twilight
as played by The Twilight Singers is all about atmosphere,
laden with nocturnally jazzy, trip-hop flavored musical settings
verging at times on the ambient. Lyrically, we find an
uncharacteristically subdued Dulli musing, "I fell far enough to
touch the hand of Lucifer / stripped of all his glory" ("King Only"),
yet still able to end the proceedings with the simple, upbeat
proclamation, "Everything's gonna be alright" ("Twilight"). An
album that expands with repeated listenings, Twilight as played by
The Twilight Singers is an inspired journey off the beaten
musical path. It sounds like the second masterpiece of Greg Dulli's
brilliant career.
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