The Afghan Whigs: Soft Control

Greg Dulli has always written lust songs, not love songs. Since The Afghan Whigs’ 2014 comeback album, Do to the Beast, the Cincinnatians proved that all reunions weren’t just a chance to cash in and recapture past glories. Alongside Polvo and Archers of Loaf, no other band in indie-rock has had a second summer quite like The Whigs.

The fact that they are one of the best live acts on the planet has solidified their position. The Do to the Beast tour, finding the band whipping up the kind of sonic maelstroms that, at times, most would have associated with Swans. Do to the Beast’s follow-up, In Spades (2017), carried remnants of that same energy, and while Dave Rosser featured on the record, he wouldn’t tour as he battled with cancer. (Sadly, a battle the popular guitarist would lose shortly after In Spades’ release.)

2022’s How Do You Burn? failed to replicate the magic of The Afghan Whigs’ preceding two releases. Not only did the production sound thin, but the album lacked Rosser’s melodic flourishes that had been such a focal point on Do to the Beast in particular. His work, the same vital source earlier in the century in The Gutter Twins. His guitar licks, slotting in between Mark Lanegan’s junkyard howls and Dulli’s soul boy swoon.

On the latter point, and soul has been Dulli’s greatest source of inspiration. The singer and guitarist, having spent a career smashing it into grunge, and basically bastardising the genre with the kind of subversive heart where some of soul’s chief practitioners would have considered it profane. Dulli has never shied away from life’s grimiest corners. And it’s here where he rectifies a lot of things on Soft Control.

Throughout several passages on the album, in a bid to move forward, he meets his demons head-on. One of Soft Control’s many highlights, the tender, piano-led Duvateen, sees Dulli nailing the big music mantra with the kind large-hearted melodies and cathartic choruses The Whigs have always held in their arsenal. (“What’s it’s gonna be / All because of me.”) Alongside Mariah Luster (“Outside waiting for a lover / Inside waiting for the truth”), these are the moments that move bands into new dawns.

Soft Control begins with Jungle Roux, where Dulli wears his Motown influences on his sleeve. The song could have been on 1965, as Dulli leans in hard on the past. So too on House and I, where he parts with street-level poetry reminiscent of Gentlemen. Dulli, at his gunslinging best (“Falling fast / Call me capable at last… At the wrong moment of your past”).

The memorable Memphis, Texas, is woven with the same thread. A nod to Paris, Texas perhaps, and as Dulli sings, “Going out of my head / All the way” he’s on a same path which led him to Black Love. Here though, there’s some hope, light even, as he channells his inner-Springsteen.

Elsewhere, and the acoustic-laden My Lover has some Algiers DNA running through it. The chorus, the kind that cuts you in half. 77 possesses the same countrified echoes. A story of a lone rider on a ridge, forming a backdrop to where Dulli gets sentimental. (“Summer skies to swallow me / I’ll be there.”)

Not for long, though, as The Deepest Parts of the Darkest Shadow comes as advertised. Balladeering with a demon soul, it dovetails nicely with Loose Talk. Soul-rock built on John Curley’s hefty bass lines that reaches a blinding crescendo. (“Loose talk, baby / Never gonna let you go.”)

Along with Jim James, Dulli is the quintessential soul boy in indie-rock. (Apt considering both The Afghan Whigs and James released new albums in the space of week of each other.) While James may go heavier on the homage, Dulli has sought to add his own potent flavours to soul. And it’s sparked the sense of many – Usher, one of the key figures in getting The Afghan Whigs back together.

While the pop figure was perhaps an unlikely bridge that helped guide the band towards a new chapter, on Soft Control, The Afghan Whigs do some guiding of their own. This latest rendezvous, ensuring that their spirit is still very much aflame, and as Dulli confesses to completed desires and being “a heartbeat away” on the slow dance serenade of A Simulation, maybe, just maybe, those lust songs are slowly turning into love songs.

Soft Control is out now via Royal Cream. Purchase here.