Album Review: "Ghosts" by Sadie and The Stark

Sadie and The Stark

*Ghosts*

(self-released)

On “Ghosts,” a six-song EP follow-up to the 2016 debut EP “Witches,” Chicago’s Sadie and The Stark continues to be a band that reaches listeners on a visceral level. Of the six tracks, “Wait For Me, Sansa,” “Rip” and “Crawl” employ the most aggressive guitar-bass-drums instrumentation that draws upon an elemental post-punk style to boost the raw and powerful vocal delivery of Sadie Rogers. It’s as if Shirley Manson were fronting Joy Division. “Riders” and “Wild In The Caves,” with its Native American-like wails of “Woah! Woah!”, highlight Rogers’ considerably powerful vocal style backed by more subtle instrumentation. But “Vampire Love Song”--featuring pedal steel guitar and a folksy rhythm and melody--might be the most surprising and interesting in lyrical content with Rogers singing: “Crush my soul, rip my skin off / after all, this is the end of the world.”

(www.sadieandthestark.bandcamp.com or www.sadieandthestark.com)

Print version of review appears in the July issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine. Click PDF and navigate to page 44.
Appearing 7/16 at Quenchers in Chicago.

Album review: "In Spades" by The Afghan Whigs

The Afghan Whigs

*In Spades*

(Sub Pop)

Desire, betrayal, heartbreak, regret...The Afghan Whigs’ frontman Greg Dulli has been fixated on these themes for nearly 30 years, and he’s no doubt perfected the subject matter. In “Demon In Profile” before the guitars and drums kick in, Dulli sings: “All over your body--this electricity / It was all that I wanted / Now it’s killing me.” It’s the most rocking track on the introspective album, the eighth from the band that currently only employs original members Dulli and bassist John Curley. Dulli is similarly pessimistic about the ways of love (would Whigs’ fans want it any other way?) on “Arabian Heights” when he sings as if in physical pain: “Breathe--my desire / Make no sound / And we’ll escape in each other” only to have the song end with: ”Love is a lie / Like a hole in the sky / Then you die.” A few tracks incorporate cello and violin string orchestration, including “Birdland,” a slightly off-putting ballad opener that thankfully and quickly fades into “Arabian Heights,” and “Oriole” and “The Spell,” which better balance the strings with more uptempo rock grooves. Curley’s  thudding bass lines drive “Copernicus” and “Light As A Feather,” the other pure rockers on the album. “Into The Floor” starts with piano, strings and Dulli’s wails and builds to wall-of-sound guitar and this final (ironic?) lyrical image: “And suddenly / A summer breeze.”

7/10

Print version of this review appears in the July 2017 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine: click PDF and navigate to page 32.