IN SPADES | THE AFGHAN WHIGS

6.5.17 It's been a number of years since I have heard a new Afghan Whigs album. In Spades has all the big soundscape romantic power of this Cincinnati outfit's Sub Pop 90s releases. Greg Dulli's voice is just as potent and moving as it ever was. In recent years I have had a number of conversations with people under 30 who have no idea who these guys or Twilight Singers (Dulli's other band) are. I hope that changes with In Spades. In Spades is close to being my favorite newer album and it has been in regular rotation in my car for months. Though I wouldn't place it above '96s Black Love (#470) or '93s Gentlemen, It is easily right there with '98s 1965 or '92s Congregation. Drop what you are doing and put on the forth track "Toy Automatic"... It's as uplifting as a song gets.

Stuart Berman @ Pitchfork writes: Back in the 1990s, the Afghan Whigs were way ahead of the curve on what would become two of the most dominant tropes in 21st-century rock’n’roll: an open embrace of R&B on one hand, and widescreen Springsteen-sized epics on the other. . .