Oscar Wilde once wrote that “The difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” In the case of Gutter Twins founders Greg Dulli (ex-Afghan Whigs, Twilight Singers) and Mark Lanegan (ex-Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age), they straddle the line because they have the benefit of both. More than five years in the making, The Gutter Twins’ debut treads darkly through the recesses of the pair’s regrets, longings and misgivings about their time making music professionally (twenty-three years for Lanegan, eighteen for Dulli), their missed opportunities and desire to rage against the night while simultaneously reveling in it; all set against the finest texturally squalling and beautifully squalid sonic backdrop in all creation.
The two singers strike a compelling balance between them—Lanegan functions as the dark with his baritone with Dulli as the possibility and light—that’s difficult to ignore and, as they trade parts on the mic, set up a dichotomy in the tracks that splits the record into emotionally opposite regions. From a vocal standpoint, tracks including “The Stations,” “All Misery/Flowers,” “Seven Stories Underground” and “Idle Hands” (easily the most powerful song on the album) are Lanegan’s show as he looks behind him and chronicles the dismal path he’s walked before looking ahead to find more of the same but resignedly continuing on just the same. Dulli, on the other hand, sees the same dismal path behind him but sees a starry sky to admire when he looks forward and uplifts listeners; he’s the reassuring, consoling voice here.
A little clarification might be in order: Saturnalia is not divided into two halves as far as the sound of each song is concerned, the sonic elements—dour guitars, hellacious solos and often brushed, but always elegiac drums, are constant through the album. The difference lies solely in the approach of Dulli versus that of Lanegan. While Lanegan moves through the record having accepted his path and plays the role that he might see as his penance, Dulli needs to see the possibility of redemption; it’s the difference between hope and acceptance and the singers play those roles with more power and belief than they have in years, which makes listeners want to follow along behind them in order to see which one wins. Of course, no one sees victory by the time the duo reaches the end of “Front Street,” but that’s not surprising because, if one came out on top, it’d mean the end of the production and, in spite of the shadowy surroundings Lanegan and Dulli do betray the occasional half-cracked smile here; they’ve reveled in the dark and found something great in it. Perhaps what Oscar Wilde said is true: “What is termed Sin is an essential element of progress.” Dulli and Lanegan have certainly moved forward into something scintillating with The Gutter Twins. Through this record, the singers recount their stories of roosting in the hen house and wallowing in the pig pen but the story is left open here—they haven’t yet reached the end and that leaves endless possibilities.
Saturnalia is out now on Sub Pop.
Download – Gutter Twins – "Idle Hands" – [mp3]
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