Off The Tracks

Off The Tracks
  • Blog
    • Interviews
    • Miscellany
    • Special Guests
    • Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • The Vinyl Countdown
  • Back Catalogue
  • About
    • About
    • About the banner image
    • On Song
May 4, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

The Afghan Whigs: Do To The Beast

Afghan BeastThe Afghan Whigs

Do To The Beast

Sub Pop

When grunge-era bands “return” and come close to hitting it out of the park – say, for instance Mudhoney – it’s impressive because the album stacks up against their former work, is better even. With Afghan Whigs that was always going to be a tough ask – there was a run there of nearly half a dozen interesting/great albums – a couple of stone cold classics. In the time between albums – over a decade and a half – Greg Duli has continued to make interesting music as Twilight Singers, as solo act, as one half of The Gutter Twins. There have been ups and downs but he’s a name always worth following, you check in on what Duli is up to – he’s capable of delivering the goods still.

It becomes a tall order releasing music again as Afghan Whigs, particularly since the band’s secret weapon, guitarist/composer Rick McCollum, didn’t want to front for this.

It means the songs just limp over the line, Lost In The Woods sounds like watered-down Elbow and, well, that band’s being doing a fine enough job of watering down their own sound anyway.

Opener, Parked Outside, rides on a puff of billowed-out bar-room rock, a kind of faux-metal that might be a meta-prank for all I know but actually just sounds rather silly. Matamoros sounds like INXS a bit, but not good INXS.

It Kills is another Elbow joint, Algiers takes the Phil Spector beat for the intro and then drapes a go-nowhere song over it, leaving it to hang in hopes that with that sly little musical reference at the start it might mean something. It doesn’t.

Duli’s in fine voice still – he hits the croon when he wants to, he barks, he parades, but it’s all pomp this time, no grit. No real soul in the songs, so even when he’s singing his heart out (though he never quite does that this time, actually) it’s still trapped inside mediocre material. A song (These Sticks) that sounds like a very old – aborted – Radiohead effort; another (Royal Cream) that sounds like very bad Van Halen…it actually starts to get pretty fucking dreadful.

Whatever songs they tried to muster they just gave up toward the end, the final half of the record particularly seems flung together. But the fans will tell you that enough of this shit sticks. That’s because nostalgia is a heavy driver. Sixteen years without them. It has to be good right? The return is ripe.

Nope. Sorry.

Posted in Blog, Reviews and tagged with Album Review, Do To The Beast, Sub Pop, The Afghan Whigs. RSS 2.0 feed.
« Paul Ubana Jones: Nothing But The Groove Tour
Rob Thorne: Whaia te Maramatanga »

Popular

  • The Best Guitarist in The World: # 8 – Mark Knopfler
  • Janna Lapidus Leblanc: Four Years In Pictures
  • The Sad Story of Bob Welch: Fleetwood Mac’s Most Undervalued Member
  • Sweetman Podcast: Episode 73 – Janna Lapidus Leblanc
  • The Best Guitarist in The World: # 11 – Lindsey Buckingham
  • Neil Peart Was The World’s Most Overrated Drummer
  • David Bowie’s Most Underrated Album: 1. Outside
  • Remembering When The Ultimate Warrior Wrote Me A Christmas Card
  • Time Casts Its Spell: When Silver Springs Became The Secret Weapon It Had Always Threatened To Be
  • Poem: Re-Watching Heat

Archives

Tags

Album Review Auckland Blog Book Book Review Chat Compilation DJ Drums DVD DVD Review EP Film Film Review Gig Gig Review Guest Blog Guitar Interview Jazz Live Live Gig LP Movie Music NZ Podcast Poem Poetry Record Records Simon Sweetman Soundtrack Spotify Stub Stubs Sweetman Podcast The Vinyl Countdown Vinyl Want more? Check out my Substack You can also support Off The Tracks via PressPatron Wellington Wgtn Writing You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron [OST]

Categories

  • Back Catalogue
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • Miscellany
  • Mixtapes
  • Playlists
  • Podcasts
  • Reviews
  • Scene Of The Day
  • Special Guests
  • The Vinyl Countdown

Off The Tracks is the home of Sweetman Podcast, a weekly interview/chat-based pod. It's also home to my reviews across film, TV, music and books and some creative writing as well.

Off The Tracks aims to provide quality reviews and essays, regular blog updates about the shows, albums, books and movies you should be experiencing.

It's a passion project. Your support will help to keep Off The Tracks online.

All content © 2022 by Off The Tracks. WordPress Themes by Graph Paper Press