Twilight Singers
She Loves You
(One Little Indian)

The songs selected for She Loves You were mostly originally sung by women, hence the title, which eliminates any possible accusations of style-aping. What former Afghan Whigs vocalist Greg Dulli has done is translate these songs to a lighter interpretation of the familiar Whigs style - with all of Dulli's personality. The first obvious tie is the suggestive cover shot of a woman lifting up her skirt, right between her legs - Dulli's never been shy when it comes to record covers. This really symbolizes the attitude of the record, that she loves you, yeah, and don't forget her willingness to show it.

Forget the complex arrangements of the originals and settle in for an hour of guitar, bass, drums and piano. Björk's "Hyperballad" is almost unrecognizeable in this context, and exists well as neither an improvement or detraction from the original. Mary J. Blige's "Real Love" may have been a stretch, but Dulli reins in his voice enough to make it work. The rearrangement of "A Love Supreme" (yes, that one) serves as a clever intro to a Marvin Gaye tune, and the traditional "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair" achieves the emotion Bono was shooting for when he screamed through "All I Want is You." Dulli's almost breathless delivery wavers on the brink of a whisper before soaring to his most emotional.

A few grinding blues numbers balance out the straight-up rock groove of most of the album. The first of these is Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," a wrenching tale of southern lynchings - "Southern trees/bear strange fruit/blood on the leaves/and blood at the roots." Fortunately, he brings along Mark Lanegan, who's at his best when doing Johnny Cash-style murder ballads. They show up again on Skip James' "Hard Time Killing Floor," wherein Dulli lets Lanegan take the lead while Dulli himself floats in the background, near-falsetto. A modern, more spaghetti-western take on this theme is "Too Tough to Die," a cover of Martina Topley-Bird's 2003 independent release. Dulli strips away the samples and busy production to a mean, cocky groove accented by a siren-like guitar. These songs provide some attitude as a complement to what is otherwise a collection of wistful love songs.

Of course, any album featuring Greg Dulli wouldn't be complete without some sloppy, flat vocal bends. He uses these to destroy George Gershwin's classic "Summertime," and seems to absolutely relish the lousiness of the bends in Fleetwood Mac's "What Makes You Think You're the One." Most of the covers, however, are well-chosen for Dulli's vocal range, and make him sound better than ever. It's on Gaye's "Please Stay (Once You Go Away)" that Dulli acheives the voice it seems he's been searching for all these years - specifically, Paul McCartney's on "Oh! Darling." The "baby, baby, baby!" pleading best captures that mix of R&B and Irish soul he's been working into Whigs records for years. It's like Shawn Smith hitting that Stevie Wonder moment or Lanegan fully invoking Cash on a solo record. The immensely improved vocals, organic feel and excellent melodic choices make She Loves You a great album. For Whigs fans, it's a mellow, sexy variation on the standard style, for non-fans, it's the perfect introduction.

-Mario


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