Since their inception, there hasn’t been a band that sounds like the Afghan Whigs. Sure, you can play spot the reference like you can with any other band, but they create something so singular that if you are part of the Congregation, you know you can’t get a hit like this anywhere else.
“House of I” has all the elements of the best Afghan Whigs songs. Greg Dulli’s trademark swagger and delivery, a riff that recalls the memorable hooks of 1965 highlights like “Uptown Again” and “Somethin’ Hot”, and a soulful groove. There’s even a nod in the lyrics to “What Jail Is Like” from their canonical Gentlemen, but make no mistake, this is not a group in their twilight, reliving past glories. The track crackles with energy, another sign that they are one of the finest indie rock bands.
“Duvateen” provides the counterbalance to that swagger. This piano-led, reflective track finds Dulli channeling his inimitable croon into a powerful musing on the road behind and the road ahead. It is a bit of a gearshift for Dulli, and he wears it well. It’s perhaps the first time Dulli has reflected on mortality in this manner, and frankly, it floored me. He has always been a powerful lyricist, but that often takes the form of characters, presumably to protect the innocent and the not-so-innocent.
Here, he is unguarded and unsentimental, weaving evergreen Afghan Whigs themes about evidence and not coming back with a reckoning of what was, what is, and what is to come. I would take more of the same from the Afghan Whigs until they call it quits for real, but this new shade caught me off guard, and now all I want is more.