The Afghan Whigs - Black Love

Where some artists write from the head and others from the heart, Whigs' songwriter/frontman Greg Dulli writes from the groin. Filled with dark images of romantic obsession, Black Love is more like a movie than an album with each musical image building on the next. Perhaps no other band can play with such restraint, letting musical tension build until it can do nothing other than explode. Dulli is in his finest voice, moving from desperate screams to a quiet sinister crooning at the turn of a chord. Guitarist Rick McCollum plays everything from '70s funk to '90s grunge without missing a beat, and the rhythm section of John Curley (bass) and Paul Buchignani (drums) is as tight as they come. If '93's Gentlemen left any doubt about the true talent of the Whigs, Black Love puts it to rest. --Bill Snyder Amazon.com

 Best Album of the 90's
I know my review title is a bold statement, but I believe this album stands above all the music I purchased or experienced in the 90's. I am always completely shocked and surprised when I see other Afghan Whigs fans rank this lower than their other albums like Gentleman and Congregation. I see this as the clear pinnacle of their career. 1965 is also a very good album, but I will take this album end to end over it every time.

When I first bought this album, I must admit I didn't enjoy it on the first listen. But on each later listening, the underlying melancholy, emotion, and conceptual flow through the songs began to create a stonger and stronger attachment to the album. It is that kind of connection, along with albums that get better with each listen, that lifts an album to be one of my favorites. Of the 50+ alt-rock genre albums I purchased in the 90's (plus many many more listened to, but not purchased), this is now at the top of my list, and is still a must play in my collection.

Part of me is disappointed that this is not more critically acclaimed amongst other great albums of all time, but then I come to my senses and realize I get to really enjoy this relatively hidden gem with a select few. April 22, 2008

 Hate to do it
I want to like this record, but I don't really. Going for some kind of a concept album, on Black Love, for the first and only time in his carrer, Dulli's reach exceeds his grasp. The result sounds swollen, pretentious, not quite genuine. I like to think that Dulli realized this, and intentionally stripped back some of the posing, to make the rootsier, less ambitious, and just flat better record with 1965. Still, there is some good material here; taken in small doses, everything sounds pretty good--"Going to Town" and "Honkey's Ladder" rock something fierce--and although "Faded" is a little overblown, well, maybe more than a little, it somehow still manages to move me. This is the kind of record that would look good on a storyboard, from the creeping opening of "Crime Scene Part One," to "Double Day," so filled with foreboading, "It was a Saturday, I came home early/ drunk with love and other things" to the elegiac midpoint "Step Into the Light," the chaotic end of the second act, the two above mentioned rockers, ("Honkey's Ladder opens with "got you where I want you, motherf***er don't you try to move") and moving toward conlusion and bittersweet resolution on "Faded." The trouble is, that as it actually plays out, it sounds a little too structured, calculated, and neat, the spotenatiety is lacking. On their own, in concert say, many of these songs would, I suspect, hold up very well indeed. All in all, a theoretical acheivement. March 29, 2008

 Timeless
In the midst of a time when popular music was becoming boring again a band known only to the true music junkies put out a CD that though went largly unsold at release, changed many lives forever for those of us who bought it. I still own the first copy of this CD I bought that March day in 1996. And I still listen to it constantly. This is not just a great CD for the Whigs but also a Masterpiece in itself. I remember being very frustrated for a few months that all music wasn't this genuine and well thought out. If you like this CD you should check out the others but no promises on their congruity with the sound and mood of this album. The other Whigs albums are great and I have always loved this band but Black Love is a crime-ridden, dark noir opus. Please give it a listen. December 28, 2007

 thought i reviewed this already?
Hello World!!Super strong vocals really meaningful lyrics swooning guitars trekking bass and the best for last, amazing drummer! I bought this CD in the spring of 96 with stone roses 2nd coming. This disk will always play my soul, road trips from Pa to San D. Countless nights through the desert winds and the rising suns of countless time, Mr. Dulli an the boyz aim to please "a real treasure." The samples do no justice if you like good rockin music just get it. Christ, its been out 13 f*&%ing years!!!!!!!!! July 21, 2007

 Unknown, . . . but why?
For once, all of the five-star reviews here are fully justified. This is one of the great lost albums of all-time. Buy it now. January 27, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...