| On the one hand, In Spades is as quintessentially Afghan Whigs as anything the group has ever done - fulfilling its original mandate to explore the missing link between howling Midwestern punk like Die Kreuzen and Husker Du, The Temptations' psychedelic soul symphonies, and the expansive hard-rock tapestries of Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd. At the same time, this new record continues to push beyond anything in the Whigs previous repertoire - another trademark, along with the explosive group dynamic captured on the recording. Indeed, the chemistry of the lineup - Dulli, guitarists Dave Rosser and Jon Skibic, drummer Patrick Keeler, multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson, and Whigs co-founder/bassist John Curley - set the tone for In Spades creation. When it came to follow up the band's triumphant return to recording - Do To the Beast (2014), which was the bands first ever Top 40 album, - the die was cast. "This is the first time since Black Love (the Whigs' 1996 noir masterpiece) that we've done a full-blown band album," Dulli says. In Spades was recorded at Rick Nelson's studio Marigny Sound in New Orleans, LA. |
