| Joel! Had you been here last night, as
I wish you had, you might have felt in your heart what makes the
Afghan Whigs worth listening to, and re-listening to. Their body
of work is getting older every day, but it’s aging remarkably
well; perhaps the vocals on Congregation ought to have been recorded
differently during the quieter intervals, and perhaps the 47-second
opening song “Her Against Me” wasn’t such a great
idea after all, since it’s really only there so that Greg Dulli
can show off his “your ass is fine/your ass is mine” rhyme
in a public place. But these obejctions aside, it’s got all
the necessary qualities that impart that greatest of possibilities
to an album, to wit, that it will someday be excavated by a son or
daughter from his or her parents’ record collection, and that
said son or daughter, upon listening to it, will rush into his or
her parents’ bedroom in the middle of the night, rouse them
both from sleep, brandish the album in their weary faces and demand: “Fuck!
Jesus fucking fuck! Is there anything else you guys haven’t
been telling me about?” |