Afghan Whigs singer
Greg Dulli put together the first version of his
Twilight Singers side project in New Orleans during a hiatus in his main band in 1997, then put it aside when the Whigs signed to Columbia Records and made their label debut, 1965. By the time he returned to
the Twilight Singers concept, he had hooked up with the Hull, England, remix duo
Fila Brazillia, and he proceeded to rethink it. The result is really two albums in one. The first four tracks and the last two adhere to Dulli's original idea, which seems to have been to trade off on vocals with Harold Chichester and
Shawn Smith on folk-ambient ballads set to trip-hop beats. On these songs, the alternating singers echo some of the Band's early records, though their main inspiration seems to have been the throaty, half-spoken style of Bono on latter day
U2 recordings. The middle of the album is given over to Dulli's collaborations with
Fila Brazillia on more exotic dance tracks, some of which are more soundscapes than songs. (The latter recordings don't really have enough of a vocal emphasis to justify
the Twilight Singers tag.) Throughout, the lyrics are dominated by images of love and death. Lead-off track "The Twilight Kid" sounds like a deathbed pronouncement to a loved one, for example, while "Love" contains the declaration, "I'd kill for you." "King Only" and "Last Temptation" extend the general subject matter to religion. But Dulli can be both vague and pretentious in his lyric writing, and when he combines it with a mannered singing style, his points seem even more belabored.
Twilight As Played By the Twilight Singers works best as a mood piece and a change of pace from the more hard-rocking sound of
the Afghan Whigs. (Note: though the album does not have a parental advisory sticker, "Verti-Marte" features the prominent and repeated use of a multi-syllabic obscenity.) ~ William Ruhlmann