I discovered The Gutter Twins’ debut LP Saturnalia a month or two too late to give it a formal jerking off here, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a relatively substantial eight song EP hit shelves out of nowhere on Tuesday. Saturnalia is one of the best, most overlooked albums of the year so far, and this new one, Adorata, is close behind.
For those of you who don’t know, The Gutter Twins is a super-duo of sorts featuring Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens Of The Stone Age, awesomeness) and Greg Dulli (of The Twilight Singers, and the Afghan Whigs, who were supposedly really great).
The first six songs on Adorata are covers, but I didn’t realize that until I sat down to write this review. I have been listening to this album for a few days now, and the only song I recognized was St. James Infirmary. Which has of course been performed by more people than The Birthday Song.
The disc starts off slow with the pretty, droning, downtempo track Belles, written by a band I’ve never heard of before called Vetiver. It’s a track I really don’t need at this point in time; if I need help going to sleep, I can just as easily start a conversation about the presidential election.
So I usually skip right to the meat of the disc, tracks two through four; Down The Line (originally by Jose González), Deep Hit (originally by Primal Scream), and the swaggering, vaguely bluesy Flow Like A River, written by Eleven; yet another nod to the contributions of the late Natasha Shneider, who we paid respects to a couple weeks ago.
All three are very single and / or mixtape worthy, richly textured with dynamic energy. Here’s Down The Line:
To get an idea of how The Gutter Twins handled their cover of St. James Infirmary, imagine Pink Floyd doing it. It’s another downtempo track of course, but what it lacks in danceability, it makes up for in soul.
Need more convincing that The Gutter Twins are worth a closer look? Here they are doing Idle Hands (from Saturnalia) on Jools Holland’s show:
I don’t hear any singles or classics on the last third of the disc, but they go down easy enough. It’s hard to get too much of Lanegan’s voice as I go about my business, and before long the proverbial needle makes it to The Stations, track one of Saturnalia, which as I said is incredible.
But Adorata is for sure the best album brought to market this week.
Adorata
September 2, 2008
Sub Pop
1. Belles
2. Down The Line
3. Deep Hit
4. Flow Like A River
5. St. James Infirmary
6. Duchess
7. Spanish Doors
8. We Have Met Before
P.S. The Stations can be heard on my Kim Jong-Il Communication Mixtape.
About Skwerl
Kevin "Skwerl" Cogill was taught his first computer programming language by his Mother's marijuana dealer at age ten. His first job involved hustling TicketMaster lines on behalf of a New Jersey concert ticket broker at age fourteen, followed by a job in graphic design shortly after graduating high school and trade school simultaneously in 1998. He built his first website in 1996 or so, and continues to do things the way they should be done, rather than the way everyone else does. He's a bit of an asshole, but he's fiercely loyal to his friends, and to fellow fans of good music.Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Skwerl now resides in Los Angeles, California, under the supervision of the United States Federal Pretrial Services Department. His attorney, David J.P. Kaloyanides, shall be shit-talking on his behalf this month.
He's no fan of Obama's, nor McCain's, but he's got $200 riding on the latter.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:39 PM
Totally agree with this - Lanegan has been doing some great stuff the last few years, from Queens to his last solo album Bubblegum, to the collaborations with Isobel Campbell, to the Gutter Twins.
I hadn’t heard anything about this EP till a day after it was released which is weird in the interweb era but a nice surprise nevertheless.
September 6th, 2008 at 1:49 PM
Lanegan might be my favorite singer.
This is killing me though. I’ve looked for this record everywhere online and I can’t find it for sale. I want a physical copy. Anybody know where I can find it?
September 6th, 2008 at 3:41 PM
I’m pretty sure its an itunes only release at this stage, which kind of sucks . . .
September 7th, 2008 at 9:17 AM
Guess I’ll just download it for free then…instead of paying cash for a physical copy.
Thank you BitTorrent and iTunes promotion idea’s.
September 7th, 2008 at 4:32 PM
Down the Line and Flow Like a River are awesome.
September 7th, 2008 at 5:40 PM
ahh good recommend skwerl. i really enjoyed the music on this. I never liked Lanegan much as a vocalist when I was a teenager , though I liked his work in Mad Season and with QOTSA. he’s almost got a tom waits quality about him. but yeah gutter twins is awesome thanks for pointing them out.
ps - your legal story was referenced to on a podunk radio station in indiana yesterday after they played Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. thought you might find that amusing.
November 9th, 2008 at 12:13 AM
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