Powder Burns

Dulli is in peak form here. [Jul 2006, p.194]

While Dulli's bitter, drunken voice remains front and center, the backup vocals and orchestras nearly make the songs sound like a parody, marrying a beast to a beauty.

This record is the “hardest” thing the Twilight Singers have released, but is situated squarely within the realm of anthemic arena rock, not the more straightforward stuff of Whigs nostalgics. Most of the time this works beautifully.

While Dulli’s working from his usual palette of muddy grooves, guitar-scree and leering swagger, the new album sounds more urgent and lucid in intention than its predecessors.

Dulli... once again lets it rip. [19 May 2006, p.77]

This is the closet Dulli has come to replicating the genius he displayed with the Whigs, but it's not a retread. [#20, p.100]

The autobiographical lyrics on offer here make for intimate listening. [Jun 2006, p.108]

After three Twilight albums that never lived up to his previous might, he's now hit paydirt. [13 May 2006, p.41]

Powder Burns doesn't reinvent the Twilight Singers' sound, but it's clear that Greg Dulli is searching for new and darker back alleys to walk down.

With Powder Burns he has surpassed all expectations brought on from his previous releases.

Powder Burns could be a sister album to Black Love, [Afghan Whigs'] career high. [Jun 2006, p.114]

It's a murky finish for such a bracing start, but when it works, Powder burns as brightly as the most affecting moments in Dulli's catalog.

Sounding (at best, mind you) like an uninspired Afghan Whigs tribute band, it recycles motifs, melody lines, production tricks, and lyrics from the back catalog. Part of the problem lies in the production--it's far too muddled, loud, and flat--but even the most gifted producer would have trouble making a good album out of the Dulli-by-numbers on display here.

There's a distressing structural uniformity to the material on Powder Burns.

Mostly the mood is dark. Kinda seductive, too. [Jun 2006, p.120]