The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen

My friend is a big Afghan Whigs fan, and has been trying to get me to get this album for a long time. He finally gave up and just got it for me for my birthday. It's not that I wasn't interested, it's just that it was never in stores when I looked for it and never came to mind when I was online. I've heard at least most of the songs at some point before already, so there weren't many surprises, but hearing the entire thing flow as an album was nice. I don't love it as much as he does, but it's still a solidly enjoyable collection of songs, and generally more interesting thematically than what I usually listen to, which is often a lot of nonsense lyrics.

It's pretty hard alternative rock, mostly. Greg Dulli plays his guitar and sings angrily. The rest of the band backs him up. Towards the end they mix it up a bit, with female vocals on the powerful "My Curse" and an instrumental final track. There's a lot of repetition if ideas in the lyrics, including a cool reprisal of the opening song's chorus with a new twist on it in "Debonair". It seems like the kind of album you keep getting more out of the more you listen to it. It's pretty much what I've come to expect from well regarded rock bands of the 90s, a lot of good hard songs but not a lot that I find particularly gripping while listening casually. I definitely think Dulli is an interesting guy, so I'll probably check out some more of his work.