Boy Meets Girl, Again

Warm, slightly fuzzy, and comfortable. These adjectives might well describe your old favorite blanket. But they apply equally well to the newest release from the Cincinnati band The Afghan Whigs. Formerly on the Seattle-based Sub Pop label, the Whigs' are now bringing a solid dose of grunge pop-rock to the major label Elektra.

Gentlemen centers on two facets of masculinity, anger and libido. The CD jacket photos show a little boy staring into space from the edge of a bed, as a little girl watches him from the other side of the bed, a classic morning-after position. Song after song on this album projects this mood of somber reflection mixed with bitterness, as lead singer/ songwriter Greg Dulli sings to a woman, pleading, "Hear me now and don't forget/I'm not the man/My actions would suggest/ A little boy, I'm tied to you I fell apart/That's what I always do."

Much of the album seethes with anger just under the surface, which constantly threatens to spill out. Dulli sings, "This time the anger's better than the kiss/I must admit when so inclined I tend to lose it than confront my mind." Of course it wouldn't be a true rock album without references to drugs, which are ample. Yet most of the songs harken back to the theme of relationships, how men treat women, and how betrayal and pain can wrench them apart. With the exception of a guest appearance by Marcy Mays, all tracks are sung by Dulli, whose voice is pretty average. Nevertheless he makes up for this blandness with an exceptional delivery, here biting some of his lines, there almost seeming to sing around the words.

What keeps Gentlemen from being simply a gloomy, standard rock album is the music under the vocals. The band's basic sound is a grunge mix of guitars, and flat, heavy drums, often with layers of distortion hovering in the background for good measure. Perhaps recording in Memphis influenced the Whigs' guitar work, which tends towards lazy, slightly distorted lines. Much of the album sounds like a grunge version of the Australian band The Church, with clean, inventive basslines and clipped single- or double-note guitar riffs, leading into fuzz guitar noodles. Several tracks include piano comping figures, while on others guitars replace them with pianostyle riffs. Occasionally a cello surfaces in the mix. Solos come only from the guitars, sometimes with a wa-wa effect, other times with clean, predictable fuzz-tinged chordal runs.

All this makes for distinctive yet relatively familiar rock tunes, with a variety of rhythmic textures. If there is one weakness, it is one which plagues much of rock today: towards the end of many songs the grunge guitar kicks in, and consequently the song endings tend to sound similar. The best tunes, such as "Be Sweet" and "Debonair," are those where drums, bass, and guitars are all active. "My Curse" is a piano and acoustic guitar midtempo track with vocalist Marcy Mays featured. In rhythm and feel it is very similar to Eric Clapton's unplugged version of "Layla," with Mays' vocal reminiscent of Grace Slick.

While it sometimes feels as if the Whigs are telling the same story on each tune-that of a man out of control and unable to function in a relationship-the tunes themselves are good solid rock. Nothing on this album will blow any listeners away, but most will find the Afghan Whigs a comfortable alternative to more highly touted but less interesting mainstream rock. For the grunge fan tired of Pearl Jam, it might be worth it to give the Whigs a whirl.