Why we care: We’re fascinated by the sleazy side of celebrity, especially the high-heeled, low-gutter debauchery of the young and the reckless. And no one better captures the sweet-sour vibe of excess and addiction than chain-smoking Twilighter Greg Dulli, who splits his time between this side project and alt-rock band the Afghan Whigs.

Why we like it: Dulli has always been torn between punk anger and pop smarts, end-credit grandiosity and hungover quiet. With the Twilight Singers, he indulges all his musical skills. This disc was recorded in New Orleans, a town that knows about sin and salvation.

Reminds us of: Wild nights, hard mornings.

Download these: There’s Been an Accident, Underneath the Waves

Grade: B+

After taking a few years off to play sideman to Mark Lanegan and kick an almost decade-long drug addiction, ex-Afghan Whigs brainchild Greg Dulli is back with a third release under his Twilight Singers moniker. Powder Burns is a reflection of Dulli’s recovery process. The drug-addled “Forty Dollars,” with its acid-tongued play on The Beatles, and “Candy Cane Crawl” reflect on his early experiences with getting clean. The concept could easily deteriorate into self-indulgent wankery, but Dulli really has pulled together a pretty epic album heavily laden with powerful anthemic rockers like “I’m Ready,” “Underneath The Waves” and the title track. All are amped up with crashing guitars, piano and backing vocals from the likes of Ani DiFranco and Joseph Arthur. Most notable, though, is Dulli’s unmistakable sandpapered howling, which made The Afghan Whigs so fucking righteous and makes Powder Burns an album worth your time and money. Shannon Whibbs

The Twilight Singers is former Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli’s latest project, and this is his fourth album under the moniker. Dulli explores the dark underbelly of love on such tunes as “Bonnie Brae,” where falling in love is all about the rapture, the situation, that moment of emotion, but this being Dulli you know it never ends well.

“Forty Dollars” is a dystopian take on the Beatles – where “Love is for sale” and “All you need is love” and “She loves you yeah-yeah-yeah” – but deep down you know she really doesn’t mean it.

Swirling violins and cello help create a mood throughout, while indie icon Ani Difranco lends her voice on a few songs (“Bonnie Brae,” “Candy Cane Crawl” and “Powder Burns”). There’s an underlying soulfulness, befitting Dulli’s Motown sensibilities (“My Time (Has Come)”), while multitracked, echoey vocals propel the indie pop rocker “I’m Ready.”

There’s a breakthrough of sorts on “Underneath The Waves,” where he proclaims: “I become alive.” That sentiment is echoed on “There’s Been An Accident,” where, with equal measure of elation and dread, Dulli sings: “I’m alive/It kinda took me by surprise.”

It seems the poet of dark spaces and even darker living sees the light, putting his demons – sex, drugs and rock n’ roll – to rest, finally. And on the title track he gains a bit of redemption.

Dulli is able to pack more emotion and feeling into three minutes-plus than some people will ever experience in a lifetime. In the bio, he says that during the recording process he sobered up after seven years of a drug/alcohol-induced haze, and the mesmerizing results are grandly and ultimately uplifting.

Recorded in New Orleans a few months after Hurricane Katrina, generators standing by to supply electricity, and in Milan, Powder Burns is former Afghan Whigs lead man Greg Dulli’s finest work in a decade. The Twilight Singers’ fourth album (if you include the insipid covers album), it updates their 80s rock sound (think Jesus and Mary Chain, and The Doves, mixed with some Stone Roses funk), ably supported by guests such as Ani DiFranco, and Joseph Arthur, but the focus rarely strays from Dulli’s singer-songwriting, melodramatic vocals and thick, dense slowcore rock. There is an awful lot going on, with anthemic choruses, and nods to the Beatles as likely to appear as classic metal guitar solos. The Twilight Singers seem destined to spend time as a critical favourite, and are as unlikely to break through with this disc as with anything Dulli has ever done – there is no leeway given for a casual listener on Powder Burns, no let-up, no easily accessible material. Some people just seem to prefer it that way.

Rating 8/10

Mike Rea

Psst, I’ve got a secret for you. Greg Dulli freaking rocks! Dulli might not be a household name, but those who are in on the secret will swear by his genius. Powder Burns, Dulli’s third album of original studio material with his new band, shows why once again. An irresistible mix of soul, rock, attitude, and killer anthem-esque, Powder Burns finds Dulli and mates come out street fighting on the strutting “I’m Ready.” Later, backed by Ani DiFranco, the Twilight Singers hit nod out nirvana on the breathtaking “Candy Cane Crawl.” Powder Burns is overflowing with standout moments, including the cocky “My Time (Has Come),” the slow-burning guitar intro of “Bonnie Brae,” the sheer pop delectability of the hooky “Forty Dollars,” the melancholy beauty of “The Conversation,” and the oh-so sensual finale, “I Wish I Was.” With Powder Burns it’s time for everyone to get in on the secret.
Reviewer: Steve Baltin

After their breakup in 2001, very few AW diehards were optimistic about Dulli’s new musical adventure TS. Serious turn to soul and black music in general, more intimate depiction of long night hours together with the accent on sexuality (already quite present on AW last album 1965) combined with at the time massively popular trip hop & downbeats simply bothered “the righteous ones”, who believed that the power & emotional honesty is directly proportionate to the number of strained vocal cords. However, the same way AW never attempted to inherit grunge, Dulli turned out not to be an author who would try to prove his individuality by rewriting his own self. On the contrary, fortunately those who understood this now have an opportunity to follow the most beautiful vision of r’n’r today.

TS originally started as an unpretentious collaboration with Harold Chichester (Howlin’ Maggie) & Shawn Smith (Satchel, Pigeonhead) back in the AW days, and over time turned into a fluent group of musicians (accompanied with the ever intriguing Mark Lanegan also involved with Dulli in their Gutter Twins project), but also into a very logical continuation from the place where AW stopped. And truly, continuing the upstream with every new album, TS today have all the qualities that underlined the best work of AW: rock foundation, charge, passion, drama, destruction, melancholy mixed with the overexposed hedonism, somewhat pompous machismo together with a fine combination or romance and unhidden libido…all the things that make Dulli proudly retain the title of the “da man”. With strong fists & soft heart.

Partially recorded in the post-apocalyptic atmosphere of a ghostly New Orleans (Dullis favorite city), in which tortured city cowboys partake in “guilty pleasures” this fourth TS album is a purebred r’n’r record, on which GD revisits the demons from the past. Sex, drugs and r’n’r may be a cliché, but not for such deeply intimate songwriter who’s looking back, yet remains mysterious enough to keep the truth to himself. Starting with the opening Toward the Waves which switches to explosive I’m Ready with lyrics “I hope I see you out tonight and I hope we get it on”, he’s passionate to the point of creating a physical excitement, whether he sings about addiction (Bonnie Brae, Forty Dollars, Powder Burns), or pictures himself as an extreme romantic, or just a baller.

The return to the classic rock formula is particularly obvious in stadium ready There’s Been an Accident, before mentioned 40 Dollars (where naïve quotes of The Beatles “Love is all you need” & “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah” are mixed with sour feelings of a renegade – “We go underground, ‘cos there’s emptiness above”. Final diamonds on this album are Candy Cane Crawl a melancholic soul worthy of sleepless nights when everything crosses your mind (with brilliant backing vocals by Ani DiFranco), and almost chilling cry in the title song Powder Burns.

On this precious album TS have married the primal urge of youth with the life experience, and assured us that their time is yet to come. This is a mandatory listen for this year.

There’s a reason why Greg Dulli, leader of the late, lamented Afghan Whigs, was seen as one of the leading lights of the alt-rock renaissance of the 1990s. The band stood out among the grunge crowd with its urgent mix of funk, punk and soul-searching, hard-boiled lyrics.
The fourth album by Dulli’s current project, The Twilight Singers, is a fitting reminder. While previous outings have shown hints of promise, Powder Burns is the first to recapture the intensity of the Whig’s best work.

The songs boast searing guitar riffs, hints of elecronica and a widescreen anthemic quality, anchored by Dulli’s from-the-gut exorcism of his battles with drugs. “I’m Ready,” with it’s furious swirl of guitars and thundering drums, is Dulli’s notice that’s he’s back in the game in more ways than one, having fought his demons and come out the other side.
– Imran Ghori

POWDER BURNS sees The Twilight Singers fulfil the potential they have always promised as Greg Dulli, wounded and incensed by the tragedy that befell his adopted hometown of New Orleans last year, has mustered all his heart and soul into an album of astonishing power and beauty.

Opening with the furious I’M READY, this is a different Twilight Singers from the mainly melancholic BLACKBERRY BELLE – this is angry, impassioned and vital. THERE’S BEEN AN ACCIDENT takes things to an even more epic level as piano and strings enhance a song that builds and builds into a hair-raising climax – another dramatic high in musical legacy that is peppered with dramatic highs.

From the dirty blues of FORTY DOLLARS and electro-balladry of CANDY CANE CRAWL to the rousing UNDERNEATH THE WAVES and BONNIE BRAE, this is not just classic Dulli, it�s the sound of the man finding his voice and letting rip in cathartic, life-affirming fashion. Guest appearances from Joseph Arthur, Ani DiFranco and Scott Bennett, not to mention former Afghan Whig bassist John Curley, serve to enhance POWDER BURNS� sense of completeness.

For those of you still mourning the passing of the Afghan Whigs, cry no more � this is Greg Dulli�s new masterpiece.