The Gutter Twins Saturnalia

I've been listening to whatever Greg Dulli has been doing for years. The Afghan Whigs, Twilight Singers, guest spots on other people's records, almost all of it. Through all of Dulli's work, there's a soulful, wounded heart to his rock. He plays his own songs and cover others all in his own unique style. And we also have Mark Lanegan, a man who has a deep, powerful voice that sounds perfectly weathered, whether it's with Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, his own stuff, that record he did with Isobel Campbell (you should hunt that one down, Ballad of the Broken Seas) or as a special guest on the last Twilight Singers tour. So, word that Dulli and Lanegan were just going ahead and doing a record together and calling the project the Gutter Twins (a perfect band name for them), I figured I knew exactly what it would sound like.

Sorta. It is dark, which I expected. It's got some sinister vibes to it, again, which I expected. But it also has some quieter moments and other aspects that kinda surprised me. It took me a couple listens to totally wrap my head around it. It did not initially knock me out like I thought it would. But I spent some time, giving Saturnalia more than just an initial listen or two and now I like it more than I thought I would.

The first half has a familiar feel to it, harnessing a sinister, shadowy sound not far removed from what you would hear on a film soundtrack, something I've always felt about Dulli's best work. It sets a mood and pulls you in from the first second with opening track "The Stations" and running straight through to the fifth track, the first song they let folks here on the internet, "Idle Hands". This part fits together very well and rock with a dark edge to it. From there, it shifts gears a bit from song to song and incorporates more strings and a loop here and there, as on "Seven Stories Underground", "Each to Each" and another Dulli masterpiece "I Was in Love with You".

The songwriting styles of the two mesh incredibly well together; it doesn't sound like they simply pitched in a few songs each called it a band.. The recording approach Dulli has been using for the last few years works for the Twins as well. The current line-up of the Twilight Singers all appear as do a cast of other musicians, among them Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age), Petra Haden and Martina Topley-Bird (whose "Too Tough to Die" was previously covered by the Twilight Singers). It's an approach that has definitely worked before for Dulli and it works just as well here. It feels like a band playing every note together on each track.

While I thought this disc was going to be one sound over and over, and that wouldn't be a bad thing, its diversity threw me a bit at first. Now that it has sunk in, I like it, as a whole, even more than I thought I would. I like that some musicians I've been listening to for years, still have it in them to make great music and still keep it interesting.

The Gutter Twins on MySpace.
The Gutter Twins playing "Idle Hands" on The Late Show with David Letterman.