The Gutter Twins
Saturnalia

Here they are finally, the suburban twins: none other than Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli [1]. And here is, after a long wait, their first official album: "Saturnalia" [2].

The album, if not a masterpiece, is still remarkable, and I like it more and more with each listen.

In its 12 total tracks, there are naturally songs where the style and sound typical of one or the other artist predominate (Bete Noire and Who Will Lead Us? for example are properly Lanegan-like; Circle the Fringes and God's Children are Dulli-like), perhaps with a slight prominence of Dulli over Lanegan.

But the best things are heard when the two reach equilibrium, thus marking the artistic originality of the project; in short, in some passages the fusion is complete: neither Lanegan nor Dulli, but The Gutter Twins, indeed. These are the moments when Dulli sinuously snakes through Lanegan's dark and deep cave (Mark's timbre reaches unfathomable depths); when on one hand the vague and underlying note of perversion in the former's voice completes with a touch of obscenity the latter's despair, granting it a new dimension, a broader spectrum, an additional window of pain, and on the other hand Lanegan's depth softens Dulli's excesses and sharp edges. It's a pity that the magic is present only intermittently and does not mark the entire album.

As expected, there is generally a rather dark ambiance, and the music fills the ears like the smoke of an unfiltered cigarette invades the lungs. In its most successful episodes (The Stations, All Misery/Flowers, Front Street, Circle the Fringes), the album is like its cover, with you listening while seated on one of those chairs under an oppressive sky that threatens divine punishments, in a dark and sorrowful atmosphere, laden with tension for the promised storm. Restrained music that only hints at its potential strength. For the rest, a single tense and liberating track (Idle Hands), a hint of electronics (Each to Each), dirty blues, excellent singing from both, much craft.

In my opinion, there is in some cases an excess of production, some baroque excesses like the initial organ in God's Children, all those strings at the end of Each to Each, or the birdsong that occasionally peeks through.

But all in all, these are small things.

[1] Now, a review, at least an acceptable one, should, before even describing a single note of this album, shovel a few wheelbarrows of words to recall who these two lads are and what they have already done. Fortunately, we are on DeBaser: the few who do not know them can thus easily get an idea. In short: Mark Lanegan was the singer and soul of the Screaming Trees, then worked alone, then got tired of being alone and began to spread around, collaborating with Queens Of The Stone Age, Isobel Campbell, Soulsavers. Greg Dulli, on the other hand, was the singer and soul of the Afghan Whigs, and then of the Twilight Singers. Also noteworthy is a collaboration with our own Afterhours.

[2] The Saturnalia were an ancient Roman festival in honor of Saturn, during which the social order was overturned (e.g., slaves behaved as free citizens), amidst sacrifices and orgies. But Saturnalia is also the title of a theatrical work by Macrobius from the 5th century AD. Saturnalia is also the name of a genus of Triassic dinosaurs. The difficult task of deciding to which meaning the album title refers is left to the interpreter.