I’ve been listening the shit out of The Afghan Whigs‘ 1965. As I told my Dad, it’s just a plain old beautiful, filthy, epic album that reeks of the city they recorded it in (New Orleans) and the year they named it after. It may just be the year that Dulli (vocalist, rhythm guitarist, lyricist, producer, etc) was born but I see it more of their way of tipping their hats off to the heyday of people like The Beatles (sampled on “Omerta”), Marvin Gaye (name checked and sampled on “John the Baptist”), The Supremes, Otis Redding or Freda Payne.

They broke up like three years after making it due to “geographic distance between members” but I’m pretty sure they listened back over this album and collectively murmured, “Oh shit. This is the best we’ll ever do.” I mean, they made an alternative rock album inspired by soul music. There are horns featured prominently throughout. It sounds crazy, but there’s even a saxophone solo on “John the Baptist.” Just a classic album and a lost art.

And thus, only their legend remains alive to this day; those kids sure could wow critics and get shat on in the sales dept.