There’s no one better at selecting covers than Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs. He always selects songs whose lyrics seem like they could be his own, and the band is so skilled at transforming the song to match the feeling. The Afghan Whigs‘ Uptown Avondale EP recast soul classics to highlight the darkness lurking under the up-tempo bounce of “Come See About Me”, and his Twilight Singers reinterpreted Björk, Mary J. Blige, and Fleetwood Mac on the covers record She Loves You.
Now, the Whigs return for the first time since 2022’s How Do You Burn? with a pair of covers, and the uniqueness of their mix of rock and soul sound is intact. This time out, the band selects a pair of more recent songs by Poliça’s “Fake Like” and Still Corners’ “Downtown”, and the single-only release delivers everything that makes the Whigs’ covers so compelling.
While the initial focus is on how skilled Dulli is at selling lines like “You’re downtown, but you say that you’re not”, the band’s transformation of these two tracks is also memorable, ramping up the drama lurking in them as they have many times before with other songs. On the verge of 40 years of Afghan Whigs and a new record to celebrate that milestone, Dulli and company sound as strong as they ever have, leaving me checking daily for an album release date.