Love tortures the Afghan Whigs’ singer and songwriter, Greg Dulli: the paranoia, the lies, the crushed hopes, the persistent longing. Not that he’s blameless. “A lie, the truth-which one shall I use?” he ponders throughout Black Love. On previous albums, Dulli has played Mr. Wrong, a compulsive seducer; now he suffers too.

The songs seethe with hard-rock guitars or crackle with early-1970′s funk; like the Smashing Pumpkins, the Afghan Whigs mobilize grand crescendos.

But Dulli, who produced the album, sabotages good songs with vocals that go beyond rawness to bellowing ineptitude. He describes his torment better than he sings about it.

by Jon Pareles