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Random Desire
Studio album by
Greg Dulli
ReleasedFebruary 21, 2020 (2020-02-21)
Recorded2017–2019
Studio
Genre
Length36:50
Label
  • Royal Cream
  • BMG
Producer
  • Greg Dulli
  • Christopher Thorn
Greg Dulli chronology
Live at Triple Door
(2008) 		Random Desire
(2020)
Singles from Random Desire
  1. "Pantomima"
    Released: December 4, 2019
  2. "It Falls Apart"
    Released: January 30, 2020
  3. "A Ghost"
    Released: February 18, 2020

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.

Background

[edit]

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]

Writing and recording

[edit]

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]

Promotion

[edit]

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]

Tour

[edit]

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]

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.1/10[17]
Metacritic76/100[18]
Review scores
SourceRating
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]

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by Greg Dulli

No.TitleLength
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

Personnel

[edit]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Random Desire.[13]

  • Bryan Brown – percussion (2), castanets (7), bells (7), vibraphone (7)
  • Camille – vocals (5)
  • Charles Copley – guitar (6)
  • Greg Dulli – production, vocals (1-10), bass (1, 5, 9), guitar (1-4, 6–9), drums (1, 4–5, 7–8), mellotron (1, 5–9), piano (2, 4–6, 10), percussion (2), organ (3, 10), vibraphone (3)
  • Scott Frock – trumpet (8)
  • Avtar Khalsa – backing vocals (3)
  • Mark McGuire – guitar (5)
  • Rick Nelson – cello (4), contrabass (4, 7), violin (4, 7)
  • Steven "Doc" Patt – contrabass (3, 10), pedal steel guitar (3, 7–8, 10)
  • Jon Ramm – trombone (8)
  • Matt Schluessler – bass (6)
  • Mathias Schneeberger – synthesizer (1), guitar (4, 8), bass (4, 8–9), drums (9)
  • Jon Skibic – guitar (1, 2–6, 9-10), bass (2)
  • Jon Theodore – drums (2, 6)
  • Christopher Thorn – production, mixing
  • Brad Walker – saxophone (8)
  • Meg Webb – harp (10)
  • Howie Weinberg – mastering

Release history

[edit]
Release dates and formats for Random Desire
Region Date Format(s) Label(s) Ref.
Various February 21, 2020
Royal Cream, BMG [27]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Nishimoto, Rei (May 15, 2012). "The Afghan Whigs Announce Summer 2012 Reunion Tour Dates". MXDWN. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  2. ^ Grow, Kory (January 27, 2014). "Afghan Whigs Plan 'Beast' of a New Record, First in 16 Years". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Thomas, Fred (2020). "Artist Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  4. ^ McMahan, Tim (November 5, 2003). "The Twilight Singer's Greg Dulli: Remembering Teddy". Lazy-i. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  5. ^ "Gutter Twins' man live album on the way". NME. October 14, 2008. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  6. ^ Varias, Chris (April 2009). "Hard Luck Guy". Cincinnati: 34.
  7. ^ Coplanon, Chris (January 26, 2012). "Video: Greg Dulli covers Leonard Cohen's "Paper Thin Hotel"". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  8. ^ "Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli announces intimate solo tour". Cristina Rocks. October 2015. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  9. ^ Geslanion, Michelle (January 20, 2016). "The Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli covers David Bowie's "Modern Love" — listen". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  10. ^ a b Bacioron, Robin (December 4, 2019). "The Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli announces debut solo album Random Desire, shares "Pantomima": Stream". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d Pearis, Bill (February 18, 2020). "Greg Dulli talks solo album 'Random Desire' and its influences in BV interview". Brooklyn Vegan. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  12. ^ Uitti, Jacob (February 24, 2020). "Greg Dulli on "Random Desire"". Under the Radar Mag. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  13. ^ a b Random Desire (booklet). Greg Dulli. Royal Cream. 2020.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  14. ^ Kayeon, Ben (January 31, 2020). "The Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli shares the Origins of new single "It Falls Apart": Stream". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  15. ^ Leiber, Sarah Jae (December 1, 2020). "Greg Dulli Releases Video For "Lockless": Stream". Broadway World. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  16. ^ a b Spera, Keith (July 29, 2020). "Greg Dulli can't tour and his New Orleans bars are closed, so he'll livestream a solo show". Nola. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  17. ^ a b "Greg Dulli - Random Desire". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  18. ^ a b "Random Desire by Greg Dulli". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  19. ^ Deming, Mark. "Greg Dulli Random Desire". AllMusic. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  20. ^ Horowitz, Hal (February 19, 2020). "Greg Dulli, Former Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers Frontman, Explores Dark Territory On Debut Solo Release". American Songwriter. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  21. ^ Johnston, Emma (February 21, 2020). "Greg Dulli's Random Desire: a master class in mining the musical spectrum". Classic Rock. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  22. ^ Thomas, Olly (2020). "ALBUM REVIEW: GREG DULLI – RANDOM DESIRE". Kerrang!. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  23. ^ Berman, Stuart (February 21, 2020). "Greg Dulli Random Desire". Pitchfork. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  24. ^ Waterman, Cole (March 2, 2020). "Greg Dulli Crafts a Nocturnal Solo Debut of Reflective Triumph with 'Random Desire'". PopMatters. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  25. ^ Grow, Kory (February 27, 2020). "Greg Dulli Tries Happiness on 'Random Desire'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  26. ^ "Greg Dulli - Random Desire". Album of the Year. United States. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  27. ^ "Random Desire". Amazon. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
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