No Control
Let me start by saying it gives me no pleasure, none even remotely in writing this. To say I’ve been an incredibly devoted Afghan Whigs fan for the last 25 or more years is an understatement. I’ve seen them in concert maybe more times than anyone else except maybe GBV. I’m 55yo now and it’s a very significant statemet for me to say that in all the music I’ve cherished, AW slots into my top 3 favorite acts of all time. Some days they are number 1 even. I’ve followed every release with rewarded enthusiasm, from the Whigs to TS to Dulli’s solo stuff, Gutter Twins, everything. And really adored it all. Every release up until now held something new and very special, I think. Every single one. Until now.
This far into the game, what 40 years or more, I had really come to the conclusion that each album, performance, and cover even was so meticulously picked, produced, inventive, performed that Dulli would not release a ho hum album or let it go to the public. I just considered him and the band as one of those incredibly rare acts that never drops a clunker and continues to explore and be interesting for the duration of their career (see Nick Cave and so forth). It appears I was wrong. Really wrong. And why be so disappointed, right? Nearly every single musical artist I have ever adored starts to drop turds into their respective careers. And we still love them, right? It was just surprising and disappointing to me especially when I just basically had AW/Dulli in that other category.
When Soft Control was first announced I was excited as I always am for an AW release. And usually that first single is a doozy, right? Make You See God and others as example. Then House of I dropped. It was, to my ears…okay. Not special, not interesting, not lead single good. In fact, it kinda sounds like someone doing an AW cover. It’s just too…easy? From a musical standpoint and especially from a lyrical standpoint, it felt like it was trying to reach back to something they had in their original lineup. The Stonesy backup stuff, the jungle beat, etc. All the elements from those older albums I really enjoy. Except it felt like a kind of pastiche or rehash. I listened to it repeatedly thinking my opinion might change; however, the more I listened to it the less I liked it. I was starting to get worried a bit.
Then came Duvateen. A…good song. Again, nothing surprising much, came with a great backstory of how/why created and Dulli’s mental release upon finishing it. All very good stuff except the song just doesn’t deliver. In fact, I can’t recall ever saying or thinking this prior but the two cover songs they did on the lead up to the album releases are in the same vein and yikes. better even. And that’s something I’ve never really said about the band in my long fandom, that similar cover songs were better than their own material. I was starting to now form a disappointing opinion of the new album.
Jungle Roux followed. Alas. A song that very much sounds like an outtake or lesser version of a MUCH better AW song from just the last album even, Take Me There. It’s impossible for me to hear JR without hearing TMT, they are just too similar and TMT SO much better in my estimation. I just can hardly believe Dulli, the creative force he is and seeming perfectionist letting this out into the public knowing full well it is so similar to the other tune on such a recent album. By then I had just started to think something has changed with the band (other than drummer), or something had changed with Dulli’s approach to releases and such. Letting this much subpar stuff come out. Still, I could hardly believe it, 3 straight clunkers as singles from a new album. I had pretty much resigned myself to a meh album from them.
Then the final single arrived, My Lover. Again, just a kind of nearly cliche song, lyrically and musically. Probably the most disappointing. It sounds like an alternate and much worse version of Edwyn Collins A Girl Like You. Seriously. Ugh.
Like I said prior, musically and especially lyrically all the new singles are kind of let downs given how creative and interesting everythinig up until now has been. It almost sounds like a band that is, effing geez, bankrupt of new ideas and needing to release an album.
Of course, this is just one jerk’s opinion and should not be greatly regarded in any way, shape, nor form but I don’t got many AW fans around these parts to discuss these things so I’m putting this on here to hopefully hear different opinions and/or agreement. So please, totally discard my mostly pointless post here, if you wish. You probably should, heh.
I will still be a fan forever. And it’s nothing new when a favorite band begins to fall off over time; rather, it’s just 40 years into this I had assumed this kind of thing wasn’t even possible with them.