Gentlemen (album)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"What Jail is Like" redirects here. For the EP, see What Jail Is Like EP.
Gentlemen
Gentlemen.jpg
Studio album by
The Afghan Whigs
ReleasedOctober 5, 1993
Studio
Genre
Length48:56
LabelElektra
ProducerGreg Dulli
The Afghan Whigs chronology
Uptown Avondale
(1992) 		Gentlemen
(1993) 		Black Love
(1996)
Singles from Gentlemen
  1. "Gentlemen"
    Released: 6 September 1993
  2. "Debonair"
    Released: February 1994
  3. "What Jail Is Like"
    Released: August 1994

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.[1]

Written by Dulli on tour for the band's 1992 album Congregation, Gentlemen is composed as a troubling song cycle that follows a toxic relationship as it ends.[2] Noted for Dulli's grimly acerbic lyrics and influences from soul music, it is considered by critics to be the Afghan Whigs' greatest record,[2] an essential release from the 1990s, and among the best-written breakup albums.[3] The album was remastered in deluxe format for its 21st anniversary and covered extensively in a dedicated volume of the 33⅓ music book series.

Writing and recording[]

I think people get kinda disappointed when I say the album isn't all autobiographical, and I'm like, God, that’s kind of mean, to think something like that. Why would you want poor little me to go through all that? It's like anything else. You use some license. It's observation. Maybe it started out with something autobiographical, and then you want to blow it up into something bigger.

— Greg Dulli (1994)[4]

The Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli, an amateur filmmaker during his teenage years, took direct inspiration for Gentlemen's thematic concept from Francis Ford Coppola's 1982 romantic fantasy film One from the Heart, identifying especially with the lead character played by Frederic Forrest. "He was just a real kind of heel", Dulli explained. "But you could tell he didn't want to be one, that he wasn't really one." With this idea as an impetus, Dulli proceeded in his songwriting to see the extent to which he could explore "the dark psyche of the '90s male".[4]

Having covered Motown songs on the band's final release for the Sub Pop label (1992's Uptown Avondale), Dulli wanted to experiment with more sympathetic sounds through the use of minor keys and slower tempos. Of the Motown influence, he cited the songs' upbeat musical moods and how they framed and contrasted sad lyrics. "And that's what I wanted to go into on Gentlemen", he explained. "How far can I go into it? How dark is dark?" Dulli also drew musical inspiration from Van Morrison's influential 1968 album Astral Weeks, particularly in its use of reoccurring melodic motifs and lyrical images throughout, albeit in different forms.[4]

The Afghan Whigs recorded Gentlemen primarily at Ardent Studios in Memphis, with additional recording taking place at Cincinnati's Ultrasuede Studio. They took a "cinematic" approach to recording, with the album credits later describing the process as having been "shot on location" at Ardent.[1] Along with original songs, the band recorded a cover of soul singer Tyrone Davis' 1970 song "I Keep Coming Back".[5]

Artwork and title[]

The album cover was inspired by Nan and Brian in Bed, New York City by Nan Goldin.[6][7] In his book about Gentlemen, Bob Gendron describes how Linda Ronstadt was allegedly furious over the album's cover.[8] The album was titled Gentlemen ironically.[9]

Reception and legacy[]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic4.5/5 stars[1]
Chicago Tribune3.5/4 stars[9]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music4/5 stars[10]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[11]
NME9/10[12]
Q4/5 stars[13]
Rolling Stone4/5 stars[14]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide4.5/5 stars[15]
Select4/5[16]
The Village VoiceA−[17]

Gentlemen was hailed by Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot as a "riveting song cycle of romantic burn-out" featuring a narrator of questionable decency. Kot applauded Dulli for capturing "the moment when infatuation loses its bloom and gives way to something a bit more realistic". Despite the band's roots in the Sub Pop label, the critic observed "a decidedly non-grungy brand of guitar rock, with slightly busy drumming and arrangements that mirror the turmoil in Greg Dulli's voice".[9] In the Los Angeles Times, Richard Cromelin regarded the album as possibly "the most overlooked masterpiece" of 1993 and "a grueling immersion in the latest methods of warfare in the battle of the sexes—a dark, dramatic wallow in lust, shame, guilt, despair, deceit and obsession that's framed in dense, uplifting rock."[4] Rolling Stone magazine's Matt Diehl noted "a clean, oddly detached hard-rock sound that shifts erratically between purgative and disarmingly pretty, adding tension to Dulli's caterwauling".[14] Reviewing Gentlemen in March 1994 for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau applauded the raw recording quality and wrote in conclusion:

Those conflicted guitars are a direct function of the singer-writer-producer-guitarist's agonized self-exposure/-examination. If the album wears down into covers and instrumentals, that's only to signify its spiritual exhaustion. No reason to trust him—just his brain selling his ass at a higher convolution. But anyone susceptible to simpler lines, as fisherman or prey, can learn plenty. And the jaded can appreciate the clean, snakelike trajectory of the cast.[17]

The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2010).[18] A 21st-anniversary reissue of the album, entitled Gentlemen at 21, was released on October 28, 2014.[19] It received widespread critical acclaim, registering an aggregated score of 95 out of 100 at Metacritic.[20] Commenting on its legacy at the time of the reissue, Orlando Weekly writer Ashley Belanger said, "It's heralded as one of the best break-up records ever written and considered an essential '90s release, due to the Whigs' creative fusion of R&B with that post-punk alternative rock sound signature to that era."[3]

33⅓ Book[]

In 2008, writer Bob Gendron published a critical and scholarly exploration of The Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen as part of the 33⅓ music book series exploring influential albums from pop history.[21][22] Gendron's book included extensive interviews with band members and others within Afghan Whigs' circle regarding the creation and impact of Gentlemen.[23]

Track listing[]

All tracks written by Greg Dulli except where noted.

  1. "If I Were Going" – 3:05
  2. "Gentlemen" – 3:54
  3. "Be Sweet" (Dulli, Rick McCollum) – 3:37
  4. "Debonair" – 4:15
  5. "When We Two Parted" (Dulli, McCollum) – 5:47
  6. "Fountain and Fairfax" – 4:21
  7. "What Jail Is Like" – 3:30
  8. "My Curse" (sung by Marcy Mays of Scrawl) – 5:45
  9. "Now You Know" – 4:10
  10. "I Keep Coming Back" (Leo Austell, Leo Graham) – 4:52
  11. "Brother Woodrow/Closing Prayer" – 5:40

An LP version of the album also included a bonus 12" vinyl limited edition containing the following 4 tracks, originally recorded for a radio session (Goodier Session, BBC Radio 1):

  1. "Rot" (Mays, Harshe, O'Leary)
  2. "Fountain and Fairfax"
  3. "Keep Coming Back" (Austell, Graham)
  4. "Tonight"

Personnel[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Raggett, Ned. "Gentlemen – The Afghan Whigs". AllMusic. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Weiss, Dan (November 12, 2014). "The Afghan Whigs Dissect 'Gentlemen,' Track By Track". Spin. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Belanger, Ashley (September 16, 2014). "The Afghan Whigs reunite for Do to the Beast and reissue Gentlemen". Orlando Weekly. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Cromelin, Richard (January 22, 1994). "Whigged Out : Group's 'Gentlemen' Delves Into Dark Psyche of '90s Male". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  5. ^ Greer, Jim (November 1993). Bernstein, Jonathan; Stowe, Jay (eds.). "Big Stars". Spin. p. 20. Retrieved June 8, 2021 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Higgins, Reese (2012-09-28). "Interview with The Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli - Arts Desk". Washingtoncitypaper.com. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  7. ^ "The Collection | Nan Goldin. Nan and Brian in Bed, New York City. 1983". MoMA. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  8. ^ Breen, Mike (9 October 2008). "The Last Word on The Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen". CityBeat. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c Kot, Greg (October 28, 1993). "Turmoil Time". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  10. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
  11. ^ Sinclair, Tom (October 1, 1993). "Gentlemen". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  12. ^ "The Afghan Whigs: Gentlemen". NME: 39. October 9, 1993.
  13. ^ "The Afghan Whigs: Gentlemen". Q (119): 132. August 1996.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Diehl, Matt (January 24, 1994). "Afghan Whigs: Gentlemen". Rolling Stone (674). Archived from the original on April 24, 2009. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  15. ^ Gross, Joe (2004). "Afghan Whigs". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 9–10. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  16. ^ Perry, Andrew (November 1993). "Afghan Whigs: Gentlemen". Select (41): 86.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b Christgau, Robert (March 1, 1994). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved May 7, 2011.
  18. ^ Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.
  19. ^ Minsker, Evan (8 September 2014). "The Afghan Whigs to Reissue Gentlemen, Tour". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  20. ^ "Gentlemen at 21". Metacritic. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  21. ^ Citybeat
  22. ^ "MTV Hive". Archived from the original on 2012-04-18. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  23. ^ Paste Magazine

External links[]

Retrieved from ""