Elegant gloom is the shared gene between the Gutter Twins, a new duo pairing two of the more enigmatic figures of the 1990s alternative nation: Mark Lanegan of the Screaming Trees, an early architect of grunge in the northwest, and Greg Dulli, who fronted the Afghan Whigs and later the Twilight Singers, a collective which excelled at beautiful moods. Their collaboration is the result of opposing strengths: Lanegan’s sludge-rock inclinations and Dulli’s sensual soul, which together examine both the horrors and the splendor of primal introspection.
Maybe because his baritone vocals have nowhere to go but down, but Lanegan’s half engages the least. There is standard nihilism on “Idle Hands”, a synth-rocker stacked with guitar riffs in which Lanegan delivers goth-ready lyrics — “I suffer you/You suffer me/We are the devil’s plaything/Into this reckoning” — that sound like napkin philosophy by Marilyn Manson. His darker tones are best used in more unexpected ways, including “All Misery/Flowers”, where, atop a twitchy beat, he releases a torrent of abstract vocal images (“I saw an animal/With eyes like mine on fire”) that sound directed from a nightmare.
The Twins sound best trying to rise up from the gutter instead of laying there resigned. Thanks to a host of collaborators (from Joseph Arthur to New Orleans electro-whiz Quintron), the music is exotically arranged and restless. Dulli’s soaring vocals shade the music with spiritual overtones, making it both personal and universal. Some of his best vocal work is here, especially “God’s Children”, a psych-anthem reaching for redemptive glory. On “I Was In Love With You”, grinding guitar textures stack tension that Dulli breaks through, his voice intoning the title lament with sorrow and also catharsis.