Search - Twilight Singers :: Powder Burns

Proof that music ain't dead yet.

Luke Rounda | Lawrence, KS | 07/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are people out there listening to the radio. They want to be rescued. Long since tired of riding dirty on a honkytonk badonkadonk that makes one want to la-la, there are some that would argue that Y2K was really the day the music died. (If not even sooner, but those folks didn't like Nirvana, Alice in Chains or Soundgarden. Go figure.)



Well, anyone who's heard "Gentlemen" or "Congregation" or any other record by the Afghan Whigs should be yelling "Rescue me, Dulli!" And on "Powder Burns," Greg's delivered the goods.



Possibly the most soul-infused yet forward-thinking rock record since the Whigs' "Black Love," the new Twilight Singers record still shouldn't be construed as an Afghan Whigs album without the name. Despite Dulli wearing lead singer shoes, which definitely aids in stamping any project with a signature raspy-throated, tunelessly-endearing sound, the backing band and instrumentation are a far cry from the rabies-inflicted punk animal that was the Whigs. Sure, it's dirty, dirty, grungy blues-rock, but one might be surprised what creeps into a song here and there. "Bonnie Brae" is a melancholy headbanger that could almost be called blue-collar shoegaze. Piano and violin pepper tracks like "There's Been An Accident," while rushing, watery electronic influence is lovingly splashed here and there, most obviously on the intro piece "Toward the Waves"/"I'm Ready."



Of course to think ahead, people usually end up looking back to see how good music was made in the first place. Dulli liked smashing Beatles riffs around on his covers record so much that he's taken to purloining lyrics, too, reframing the timeless refrain of "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah" with a derisive sneer and a cranky guitar din ("Forty Dollars").



Not every word on "Powder Burns" is an homage, however. Lyrically, Dulli has always struck me as a singing Charles Bukowski. Sometimes it's exactly who you need to hear from to fall asleep at night when you're too bleary-eyed to read."

Never A Dulli Moment

The Wasp | Australia | 08/03/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One of the premier songwriters who always delivers a tormented musical portrait is Greg Dulli, one-time leader of the criminally overlooked Afghan Whigs and current chief of The Twilight Singers.

It's a wry album title for someone who's long battled a nose candy addiction, but Greg Dulli never ceases to turn in a staggering performance on record. Even 2004's covers album She Loves You - in hindsight an obvious stopgap while Dulli attempted to break free of drug addiction and rediscover his lyrical fire - offered an amazing retelling of divergent tracks made famous by everyone from Billie Holliday to Bjork.

My Time Has Come is The Twilight Singers' take on Sympathy For The Devil, exhibiting the danger of The Rolling Stones of the late `60s. The song conjures visuals of Dulli walking hand in hand with the Prince Of Darkness as the songwriter documents his own demise.

Where once Dulli found himself backed by soul singers and crooning his way through albums, Powder Burns finds the frontman relying more heavily on his alternative tattered style of vocal delivery. Fellow gnarled drug survivor Mark Lanegan again pops up on a Twilight Singers release, albeit in sampled form on Candy Cane Crawl, while Dulli's interest in Beatles (having previously worked on the Fab Four biopic Backbeat and performing John Lennon's Real Love) also rears its head on Forty Dollars, where he reprises their early smash She Loves You.

Recorded in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dulli still proves to be a rogue wave in a sea of listless rock performers."

Worth it for Candy Cane Crawl alone

T. Karnessis | Long Island, New York | 12/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"But as you see, I gave Powder Burns a 5 star rating, because the entire album, with its swings from raw rock snarl to sultry, soft croon, is a musical treasure. Greg Dulli really can croon, sweetly, even when his lyrics are tough to swallow, as in Candy Cane Crawl and Dead To Rights. The perfect backup vocals (Ani Difranco could not be more perfect in Dulli's songs here) and lush arrangements, layered sometimes with string flourishes and acoustic guitars, are just plain gorgeous, never under or over produced. The Conversation is a quiet acoustic of this sort. Forty Dollars is electric & piano & stomping beats with a snarling vocal telling a sordid tale of Dulli's lifetime demons, which fans of his will know quite well. At the end of Forty Dollars he says he's just bein' honest, which he has always been in his music & which makes his music all the more gritty & appealingly raw. There's Been an Accident, Candy Cane Crawl, Dead to Rights and I Wish I Was (a song with a slow sexy groove and light horns in the background) show GD has only gotten better over the years. There is an interesting story behind the creating of this record, well worth looking up on the Twilight Singers website. If you are a fan of GD, which you probably are if you are reading this, you owe yourself to get this album and the story behind it."