| Random Desire | ||||
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| Released | February 21, 2020 | |||
| Recorded | 2017–2019 | |||
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| Length | 36:50 | |||
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| Producer |
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| Greg Dulli chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Random Desire | ||||
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Random Desire is the debut studio album by American singer Greg Dulli, lead singer of the bands the Afghan Whigs and the Twilight Singers. It was released on February 21, 2020, by Royal Cream and BMG Rights Management.
Dulli's band the Afghan Whigs had reformed in 2012 for a reunion tour, [1] and released two albums, Do to the Beast (2014) and In Spades (2017). [2] [3] In the past, Dulli had released solo material away from the Afghan Whigs and his other musical acts, the Twilight Singers and the Gutter Twins. In 2005, Dulli released Amber Headlights , an album compiling solo sessions written in 2001, [4] and a live album released in 2008 featuring content he had recorded at The Triple Door in Seattle for the A Drink for the Kids fundraising effort by The Vera Project. [5] Since 2009, Dulli had released solo cover tracks, such as covers of the Eddie Hinton tracks "Hard Luck Guy" and "Cover Me" in 2009, [6] and covers of Leonard Cohen, Sharon Van Etten and David Bowie. [7] [8] [9]
After the release of the Afghan Whigs' eighth studio album In Spades and the death of Afghan Whigs' guitarist Dave Rosser in 2017, Dulli began to work on Random Desire. [10] The album became a solo project when Dulli realized that many of his Afghan Whigs bandmates would be unavailable in the upcoming months: drummer Patrick Keeler would be on tour with his band The Raconteurs, and bassist John Curley had decided to go back to college. [11] [12] After a burst of inspiration in February 2019, the album was primarily written and recorded between then and July 2019, at sessions in Joshua Tree National Park, Dulli's home in Los Angeles and New Orleans. [11]
The album, took influence from Prince and Todd Rundgren's methods of writing and performing almost every instrument on their records. [3] Dulli wrote and arranged the album entirely by himself along with playing the bulk of the instruments, but brought in supporting musicians to add accents to the songs. [3] These musicians included Queens of the Stone Age drummer Jon Theodore, singer Camille, and Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers band members Rick Nelson, Jon Skibic, Mark McGuire and Mathias Schneeberger. [13]
The album was announced on December 4, 2019, the same day that the leading single "Pantomima" was released to streaming services. [10] The songs "It Falls Apart" and "A Ghost" were released in the month leading up to the album's release. [14] [11] The final promotional single for the album was "Lockless" which was released on December 1, 2020. It was accompanied by a video directed by Bailey Smith featuring footage of New Orleans during the first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020. Dulli stated that "the song itself suggests a loneliness and I felt the marriage between the song and these images [of a deserted New Orleans] was too perfect not to explore". [15]
Dulli originally planned an international tour held from March to May 2020 performing with Afghan Whigs members Jon Skibic and Rick Nelson; [11] however, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic this tour was postponed. [16] On August 1, Dulli held two pay-per-view livestream events streamed from Gold-Diggers Sound in Hollywood: one solo performance, and one joined by his general practitioner and contrabass/pedal steel guitar player Steven Patt. [16]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.1/10 [17] |
| Metacritic | 76/100 [18] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [19] |
| American Songwriter |  [20] |
| Classic Rock | [21] |
| Kerrang! | [22] |
| Pitchfork |    [23] |
| PopMatters | [24] |
| Rolling Stone | [25] |
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Random Desire has an average score of 76 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [18] Album of the Year collected 13 reviews and calculated an average of 75 out of 100. [26] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album 7.1 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. [17]
All tracks are written by Greg Dulli.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Pantomima" | 3:25 |
| 2. | "Sempre" | 3:33 |
| 3. | "Marry Me" | 4:00 |
| 4. | "The Tide" | 4:37 |
| 5. | "Scorpio" | 3:19 |
| 6. | "It Falls Apart" | 4:23 |
| 7. | "A Ghost" | 2:42 |
| 8. | "Lockless" | 3:50 |
| 9. | "Black Moon" | 3:29 |
| 10. | "Slow Pan" | 3:32 |
| Total length: | 36:50 | |
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Random Desire. [13]
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various | February 21, 2020 | Royal Cream, BMG | [27] |
The Afghan Whigs are an American rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio. They were active from 1986 to 2001 and have since reformed as a band. The group – with core members Greg Dulli, Rick McCollum, and John Curley (bass) – rose up around the grunge movement, evolving from a garage band in the vein of the Replacements to incorporate more R&B and soul influences into their sound and image. After releasing their first album independently in 1988, the band signed to the Seattle-based label Sub Pop. They released their major-label debut and fourth album, Gentlemen, in 1993. Pitchfork described them as "one of the few alt-bands to flourish on a major label" in the 1990s.
Congregation is the third studio album by American alternative rock band The Afghan Whigs, released on January 31, 1992, by Sub Pop. After touring for two years in support of their 1990 album Up in It, the band received a $15,000 advance from Sub Pop to record a follow-up album. It was primarily recorded at Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville and Buzz's Kitchen in Los Angeles during July to August 1991. The band's frontman Greg Dulli produced the album entirely with audio engineer Ross Ian Stein. The album's production and release were hindered by Sub Pop's financial difficulties, which were eventually resolved by the massive commercial success of Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind.
Mark William Lanegan was an American singer, songwriter, and poet. First becoming prominent as the lead singer for the early grunge band Screaming Trees, he was also known as a member of Queens of the Stone Age and The Gutter Twins. He released 12 solo studio albums, as well as three collaboration albums with Isobel Campbell and two with Duke Garwood. He was known for his baritone voice, which was described as being "as scratchy as a three-day beard yet as supple and pliable as moccasin leather" and has been compared to Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Cave.
The Twilight Singers are an American indie rock band. The group was formed in 1997 by Greg Dulli as a side project during a hiatus from his group The Afghan Whigs. After the Afghan Whigs disbanded, Dulli used The Twilight Singers as his own artistic vehicle, and has now released five studio albums backed by worldwide tours.
1965 is the sixth studio album by American rock band The Afghan Whigs. It was released on October 27, 1998, by Columbia Records.
Gentlemen is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band the Afghan Whigs. It was recorded primarily at Ardent Studios in Memphis, with the band's frontman Greg Dulli producing, and released on October 5, 1993, by Elektra Records.
Benjamin Mumphrey is an American record producer, audio engineer, and musician.
Black Love is the fifth album by the band The Afghan Whigs, released in March 1996. It was released by Elektra Records/Sub Pop in the US and by Mute in Europe, and was produced by Greg Dulli. Black Love was preceded by the single "Honky's Ladder" and followed by the single "Going to Town".
Powder Burns is the fourth album by Greg Dulli's The Twilight Singers. It was released on May 15, 2006 via One Little Indian Records on CD and double 12" vinyl. Powder Burns was partly recorded with extra power generators in a deserted New Orleans studio just after the floods caused by Hurricane Katrina. The album was also recorded in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Milan, and Catania.
A Stitch in Time is the second EP released by The Twilight Singers. The five song EP was first released on iTunes on October 10, 2006. Hard copies were then released in the UK on December 4, 2006, and in the US on January 23, 2007. A Stitch in Time features guest appearances by Mark Lanegan and Joseph Arthur. "Live with Me" is a Massive Attack cover, while "Flashback" is a Fat Freddy's Drop cover.
Blackberry Belle is the second full-length album released by The Twilight Singers. It was released by One Little Indian Records on October 14, 2003 and features guest appearances by Mathias Schneeberger, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Stanton Moore, Petra Haden, Kamasi Washington and Mark Lanegan. The album is a tribute to director Ted Demme, a close friend of Greg Dulli's who died of a heart attack while playing a game of basketball in January 2002. Dulli had been working on another project entitled Amber Headlights, but abandoned those sessions due to Demme's death. The recordings which followed, fueled in part by the memory of Demme, resulted in Blackberry Belle.
She Loves You is the third full-length album by The Twilight Singers and their first covers album. It contains covers from various kinds of music, ranging from jazz and blues to soul and R&B to rock and trip hop, and by artists John Coltrane, Skip James, Marvin Gaye, Mary J. Blige, Fleetwood Mac and Björk.
Dust is the debut studio album by American music producer and Cypress Hill member DJ Muggs, credited as Muggs. The album was released by ANTI- on March 11, 2003. A stylistic departure from his previous work, Dust saw Muggs exploring a sound rooted in trip hop and electronica. The album features vocals by Josh Todd of Buckcherry, Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers, Amy Trujillo, and Everlast.
Harold "Happy" Chichester is an American singer-songwriter and musician.
Amber Headlights is an album by Greg Dulli, released in 2005.
Dynamite Steps is the fifth full-length album by Greg Dulli's The Twilight Singers. It was released on February 14, 2011, worldwide, and a day later in the United States via Sub Pop on CD and double 12" white-colored vinyl.
Greg Dulli is an American musician from Hamilton, Ohio. Debuting as a member of the rock band the Afghan Whigs in 1986, Dulli has been a member of the Twilight Singers, Gutter Twins, and in 2020 released his debut solo album, Random Desire. Dulli is known as the voice of John Lennon in the 1994 film Backbeat, and has produced music for musicians such as Afterhours, and is known as a regular collaborator of Mark Lanegan and Joseph Arthur.
Do to the Beast is the seventh studio album by American alternative rock band The Afghan Whigs, their first in 16 years. It was released on April 15, 2014 on Sub Pop Records, the same label that released their albums Up in It and Congregation.
Dave Rosser was an American rock guitarist known for his work for the Afghan Whigs, who he joined in 2014. He played guitar on their albums Do to the Beast and In Spades. Previously, he was a member of the Gutter Twins and the Twilight Singers, projects started by Whigs frontman Greg Dulli.
How Do You Burn? is the ninth studio album by American rock band the Afghan Whigs. The album was released on September 9, 2022, through BMG Rights Management, making it their first album since 1998's 1965 to not be released under Sub Pop.
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