Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan had been working together since the early part of the millennium, Dulli with Lanegan on his solo work and Lanegan with Dulli's group the Twilight Singers, even touring as part of the band and showing up twice on the 2006 EP A Stitch in Time. It therefore makes sense that much of Saturnalia sounds quite similar to the Twilight Singers' material, particularly the songs where Dulli takes full or most of the writing and singing duties. This is by no means a bad thing; Dulli is all powerful, surging hooks and biting, twisting electric guitars, and Lanegan's baritone -- when he sings both lead and background vocals -- give the words an extra power, subtlety, and resonance, helped no doubt by the visceral growls he adds to lines in "Bête Noire" and "Circle the Fringes." These are songs drawn from the gothic tradition, where good and evil and pleasure and pain crisscross and entwine facilely and indelibly, where the secular and the sacred have no clear defining lines. Religious imagery weaves its way in and out, as much a part of the tracks as are the sex and violence and drugs and all the other Lanegan/Dulli constants. "I hear the Rapture's coming," they sing in "The Stations," recalling both life and death as Dulli's snarl rises over his partner's moan, while Lanegan takes the lead on the gospel-inspired "Who Will Lead Us?" and the ominous storm cloud of "All Misery/Flowers," which starts with "Little girls might twitch at the way I hitch" and ends with the refrain of "I tell you my story so that you might save me," as Dulli sings softly behind. So well, in fact, do the two voices work together, that the one track to which only one contributed (Dulli wrote and sings alone on "I Was in Love with You") seems almost out of place, shiny nickels and dimes on the offering plate stuffed with bills. Saturnalia is mysticism and hedonism, saints and sinners, dark and light, but this is no clear-cut Manichaean collaboration. Both Lanegan and Dulli represent this, both contain all the good and the bad they sing about, sometimes at different moments but very often together, and it's that joined duality, that very disturbingly human quality, telling us things about ourselves we'd rather not acknowledge, that makes the album so absolutely alluring.
02 "God's Children" (Dulli) - 4:57
03 "All Misery/Flowers" (Dulli/Lanegan) - 4:23
04 "The Body" (Dulli) - 3:03
05 "Idle Hands" (Dulli/Lanegan) - 4:38
06 "Circle the Fringes" (Dulli/Lanegan) - 5:24
07 "Who Will Lead Us?" (Lanegan) - 3:49
08 "Seven Stories Underground" (Dulli/Lanegan) - 3:22
09 "I Was in Love With You" (Dulli) - 4:25
10 "Bête Noire" (Lanegan) - 3:52
11 "Each to Each" (Dulli/Klein) - 4:49
12 "Front Street" (Dulli/Lanegan) - 5:22
Credits
Mark Lanegan - Vocals
Scott Ford - Bass
Greg Dulli - Vocals, Mellotron, Electric Piano [Rhodes], Piano, Drums, Guitar
Greg Wieczorek - Guitar, Drums
Guitar – Dave Rosser
Jeff Klein - Guitar
Mathias Schneeberger - Guitar
Troy Van Leeuwen - Guitar
Producer – Dave Rosser, Gutter Twins, The, Mathias Schneeberger
Recorded By – Alain Johannes, Ben Mumphrey, David Catching, Dave Rosser, Ken Rich, Mathias Schneeberger, Mike Napolitano, Norm Block
Written-By – Dulli, Lanegan
Mixed At – Donner & Blitzen Studios
Mixed By – Mathias Schneeberger, Sir Damian Stainsley
Notes
Shot on location in Arcadia, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Joshua Tree
Design [Album Design] – Scott Ford
Photography By – Sam Holden
Photography By [Front Cover] – Frank Relle
Mixed at Donner and Blitzen/Arcadia, CA
Mastered at Capitol, Hollywood, CA
Genre: Alternative rock
Duration Time: 52:30
© 2008 Sub Pop Records
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