AFGHAN WHIGS - Soft Control

"Soft Control" is the tenth album by the Afghan Whigs, the fourth since the band's 2014 comeback. As hinted by the singles that preceded it, this new chapter of the Cincinnati band seems to be following the same script as their first act. Where "Do The Beast" marked a return to rock and snappier guitars, "In Spades" and "How Do You Burn?" wrapped themselves increasingly in soul suggestions, just as happened in the nineties with the albums that followed "Gentlemen".
"Soft Control" is the Whigs' new, definitive landing point in a black dimension – naturally filtered, as always, through a rock lineup and structure.

An electric, tension-laden album opener entrusted to "Jungle Roux" and "House Of I" shows Dulli and Curley, the only original Whigs still steering the project, building gripping, direct songs that know how to unsettle with their sharp riffs and charm with danceable soul backing vocals. Sure, everything is glossier and less visceral than in the '90s, but then again forty years have passed since the band formed, and it's only natural that their music now comes across more tamed.
"Duvateen" slows the album down, trading guitars for piano and strings in a ballad built to dispel any doubt about the health of good old Greg's voice, still elastic, sensual and raspy.
While "My Lover" bets everything on a galloping bassline and rusty guitar slashes, "The Deepest Part Of The Darkest Shadow" carries us into another soul cloud, built from keyboards and tenor sax – its closing section closely recalls the atmosphere of the wonderful "Faded", the closing track of "Black Love".

After such a gripping first half, unfortunately the same can't be said of the second, in which Dulli repeats the new modus operandi without coming up with ideas or sparks compelling enough to win us over. The guitars, moreover, seem to arrive drained of charge on tracks like "Mariah Luster", "77" and "Lose Talk", settling "Soft Control" into a tone of perpetual ballad.
All things considered, though, it's still a good record, one that makes the Afghan Whigs sound like the classic act they've become. The fire, ambiguity and sexual tension of their original phase have by now cooled, but Dulli, sixty years old at this point, has method and new themes to draw on (starting with the very theme of accepting maturity) to steer a new era and, surely, to write better albums than this one.

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23/08/2026