Interestingly, there was a particular moment when Greg Dulli started to make sense to me. It happened in 2014 when I saw a live performance of "Matamoros" at the end of Late Show with David Letterman soon after the release of Do To The Beast. It was incredible. In fact, it reminded me of a very special video cassette from my childhood that featured Duran Duran playing "Girls on Film" at one of those largely-forgotten MTV Unplugged shows. In 2014, having watched and rewatched that Letterman performance a dozen times, I knew there was something non-trivial and compelling about the music of the Afghan Whigs.
Both Do To The Beast and In Spades (the band's final album to date) are fantastic and, as far as I'm concerned, trample anything the Afghan Whigs had done in the 90s. Which is how it happened that Greg Dulli's first proper solo album was, to me, one of the most anticipated albums of 2020.
What I love about Greg Dulli is that every time I listen to a new song of his I have no idea what is going to come next. Will it be some Afghan Whigs-styled rocker or will there be an Eastern-flavoured violin appearing out of nowhere or will the whole thing be based on a gorgeous, almost elegiac piano line? Or maybe all those things will come together amid the tortured lyrics of love and despair (speaking of lyrics, it was John Murry's fantastic version of "What Jail Is Like" that made me pay attention to that side of Dulli's songwriting)?
Random Desire just sounds so intriguing. There's beautiful orchestration in the melodic and slow-burning "Lockless", there's that silky guitar line underpinning the unabashedly pretty "Marry Me", that propulsive bass opening "Pantomima", the brilliant violin section in the sinister "A Ghost". Truly, these are some of the best songs you will hear all year, with creative arrangements and well-written melodies. Absolutely top drawer.
FEBRUARY ROUNDUP:
King Krule - Man Alive!
Greg Dulli - Random Desire
Makaya McCraven / Gil Scott-Heron - We're New Here
The Friends of David McComb - Truckload of Sky: The Lost Songs of David McComb Vol.1
The Necks - Three
Mark Kozelek with Ben Boye & Jim White - 2
Guided by Voices - Surrender Your Poppy Field
Nyx Nott - Aux pieds de la nuit
