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Rating: Night music, from a '90s thriller-police setting, all the class of jazz, all the touch of soul, all the energetic impetus of rock, and a great sound investigator: Mr. Greg Dulli.
It was to be expected from a charismatic character like the Italian-American Greg Dulli, such an album of high lyrical and sound depth. Having abandoned those early Afghan Wighs sounds and having developed the "1965" sounds, our dear singer and guitarist ventures, after a series of albums under the Twilight Singers, to produce what turns out to be the most influenced and worked album of his career.
In Powder Burns you feel the nocturnal atmosphere and you smell the asphalt of the road, you hear the noise of lovers hidden in buildings covering the shady traffic of dealers and criminals that Dulli, like a metropolitan minstrel of our century, narrates with his touch of genius and madness from being well-informed.
The songs, almost all on love themes (both sentimental and carnal), on drug stories, crime, and personal reflection, are tied with a common thread that guides us through the skyline featured on the album cover. The arrangement of the songs is descending, starting from a powerful and bewildering incipit, ending with a melancholic jazzy piece that bids us farewell. This descending, however, is not to be understood in a qualitative sense, because each song plays its fundamental role within the album, decorating it in every meticulous stylistic detail.
Note the citation that Dulli makes echoing the Beatles in Forty Dollars singing: "She Loves You, yeah, yeah, yeah" instead of the usual chorus.
Featured on the album are prominent personalities in the Adult-Oriented-Indie scene like Ani Di Franco, Joseph Arthur even though Dulli's old friend, who has been OMNIPRESENT in his recent productions, is absent: Mark Lanegan.
But there is no need to worry, the deep-voiced singer is fished out in the group's new EP "A Stitch in Time" where he performs a cover of John Martyn's piece "Live with me".
Curiosity: I managed to see them in concert in Rome at the Circolo degli Artisti and I can say they have the same power you find in their CDs. Dulli is a great character (both physically and in terms of personality) and doesn't miss any luxury on stage (he even had a whiskey holder and an ashtray attached to the microphone stand....)
They played about twenty pieces from their repertoire, including some pieces by Lanegan who, on stage, was immobile and very cold but was adored like a god by the audience as soon as he calmly pronounced a "Fuck You" with his heavy smoker's voice before starting to sing.
Powder Burns has become one of my most listened-to albums. And to think I bought it as soon as it came out, not knowing who the group was, and without ever having listened to a piece by the Afghan Wighs.
Listeners, you who know more than I do, will immediately appreciate such a masterpiece.
And with this, I conclude.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Bonnie Brae (04:46)
there was a rapture, so i can never see you anymore
nightmares believable, walking into sweet oblivion
i'm not saying it's easy, to feel it all nor not at all
when somebody say, lay down your gun
and when you lay it down, get ready to run
situation dire, it's gone away, it's not going away
since you're wasting time again, my friend
on bonnie brae, on bonnie brae
if she's your master, then get down on your knees and beg for more
i'm not saying it's easier, to live your life like her little whore
'cuz when you play with fire, take your fate, it's not going away
situation dire, on bonnie brae
on bonnie brae, on bonnie brae
the soul, the screen, the smoke in between
the rise, the fall, the thrill of...
the first, the last, the sins of the past
the burn, the fade, the skin that you've flayed
come see, the sun, kill everyone
but me, i'm free indubitably
05 Forty Dollars (03:51)
just bein' honest
Sucker swallow every time
Airplane come erase your mind
Seems there's been an accident
Telephone costs you 50 cents
To find out the retail
Gory detail
Nothing here for me
I get all of my kicks for free
Mangy dog without a collar
Buy me love for forty dollars
I got love for sale
Come on, get some before it gets stale again
I win the double for a lie
I get my money on the fly
We're throwin' down
So come on by, I'll be around
I've got 3, 6, 9,
'nother dollar makes a dime
Yeah all in double dutch again
Notify your next of kin
I say:
Mangy dog without a collar
Buy me love for forty dollars
I got love for sale
Come on, get some before it gets stale, now
Love don't mean a thing
But 2 A.M. and a telephone ring
Love is all you need
And all you need is love
Love is all you need
And all you need is love
We go underground
'Cause there's emptiness above
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm just bein'
I'm just bein'
I'm just bein'
I'm just bein'
Honest, honest, honest
Honest, honest, honest . . .
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah,
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah
06 Candy Cane Crawl (04:27)
parlez no, they won't mind, six to nine's a long, long time
but they won't miss it, they'll just forget it
that shit'll twist your little mind if you let it
so, slow down... lean in, call up that feeling
you get when you're stealing, that all too revealing side of you
who loves you true, but they'll just forget it, they'll just forget it
that shit'll twist your little mind if you let it
who love the blue sky, who wear the dark eye
so, slow down... lean in, call up that feeling
you get when you're dealing, you start to believe it
and there ain't nobody, who loves me, it's starting
to sink in, so lean in, and start to decieve it, that all too revealing
slow down... lean in, call up that feeling
you get when you're dealing, that all too deceiving side of you
who loves you true, but they'll just forget it, they'll just forget it
that shit'll twist your little mind if you let it
who love the blue sky, who wear the dark eye
so, slow down... lean in, call up that feeling
you get when you're reeling, that all too concealing side of you
who loves you true, but they'll just forget it, they'll just forget it
that shit'll twist your little mind if you let it
who love the blue sky, who wear the dark eye
who love the blue sky, who wear the dark eye
who love the blue sky, who wear the dark eye
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By jeff3buckley
The entire album is a chiaroscuro of broken feelings, uncertain loves, and good intentions perhaps not to be disregarded in Dulli’s best tradition.
I risk using a cliché, but in this case, truly, Americans know how to rock better than us Italians...
