Random Desire
| Greg Dulli
Random Desire
Greg Dulli (born May 11, 1965) is an American musician. He has been a member of The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Random Desire features its share of inspired tangents, when he forgoes the elaborate full-band effect to embrace the mad-scientist possibilities of his solo set-up. The trip-hoppy lament “Lockless” features the album’s most pronounced use of electronics, and a brass fanfare that jolts the song back to life after Dulli powers down into a slow-motion slur. But the album’s biggest surprise is less musical than spiritual.
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Cryptic Rock
As may be natural for a singer-songwriter, Dulli forms a significant presence in each of his current and former projects. His contributions here to Random Desire are almost subdued in their effectiveness, as if the mere suggestion of volume, or aggression, or overbearance is enough to have the full, actual effect. Whatever his motivation, on Random Desire, Dulli has a strong, cheerful effect, as powerful on the driving opener “Pantomima” as he is on the quirky “Lockless,” or the nearly monotone portions of “It Falls Apart.”
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Sputnik Music
These tracks are able to unpretentiously build to varying levels of surprising intensity, yielding a number of hypnotic and poignant highlights.
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Northern Transmissions
Greg Dulli is seemingly always creating music and it’s clear from what he has produced over the last few decades that he loves what he does and that shines through in his output. With Random Desire being billed as his very first solo release the anticipation is high for what he can achieve without hiding behind, even figuratively, a backing band and Dulli does not disappoint.
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Mxdwm
Throughout the record, Dulli makes one consistent claim through both his lyricism and execution. He is unafraid: unafraid of finally standing on his own and unafraid to take chances. If anything, Random Desire is the result of Dulli’s lifelong love for music and the journey it’s taken him on.
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All Music
Dulli laid down the bulk of the backing tracks by himself, while bringing in guests to fancy them up with horns, strings, pedal steel, and extra guitar; the effect leaves the performances a bit rough around the edges, but in a way that adds more than it takes away.
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Broadway World
Clocking in at a lean 37 minutes, Random Desire is a clinic put on by a veteran master operating at the height of his powers, offering evidence of the hard-fought and weary wisdom learned from setbacks and victories alike. A lucid, confident and self-assured document of the songs of experience, the perils of existence, and the possibilities that offer themselves anew with each breath. Another death and rebirth from an outlaw who has seen it all and somehow lived to tell.
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Louder Sound
It’s a deeply intimate, deeply beautiful examination of regret, loss, disappointment, solitude and personal demons, made all the more alluring by his warm, frank, subtly emotional vocals.
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American Songwriter
Dulli revels in murky, edgy, often choppy waters as he shifts from a booming baritone to falsetto in songs that won’t be troubling the hit parade anytime soon.
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Punk News
Dulli layers everything very nicely; there’s lap steels, harps, organs, pianos, castanets. But some of the songs here are rhythmically and melodically just very flat, which doesn’t mix well with such a dense foundation. Nevertheless, this is still a standout release from a man whose unique vision set himself and his band apart at a time when they could’ve just as easily been swallowed up as a passing fad.
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Echos And Dust
Making great music is in Greg Dulli’s blood, the man has been extremely prolific during his career and has consistently released records of a high quality.
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Exclaim
Dulli has spent his whole career as a shape-shifting storyteller and Random Desire sees this continue. While most of his remaining '90s contemporaries have become self-parodies, Dulli continually finds ways to explore the hidden pain of the human experience.
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Billboard
The 10-track Random Desire became a true solo effort for Dulli, who played nearly every part on the album, though contributions came from Whigs guitarist Jon Skibic, Mathias Schneeberger of Twilight Singers, Jon Theodore of Queens of the Stone Age and the Mars Volta and a few others.
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Rock Cellar
Dulli handled most instrumentation, but an all-star cast of characters appear across the track-listing including The Whigs’ guitarist Jon Skibic and multi-instrumentalist Rick G. Nelson, Mathias Schneeberger (Twilight Singers), pedal steel wizard, upright bassist, and physician Dr. Stephen Patt, guitarist Mark McGuire (Emeralds) and drummer Jon Theodore (Queens of the Stone Age, The Mars Volta).
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All That Matters In Music
Dulli’s soft vocal delivery draws the listener in, and the emotion heard n Dulli’s voice resonates throughout the entire track.
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Brooklyn Vegan
Made almost entirely on his own, Greg explores new sounds and styles while still keeping within that swaggering style he’s cultivated over the last 30 years.
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Rough Trade
Clocking in at a lean 37 minutes, Random Desire is a clinic put on by a veteran master operating at the height of his powers, offering evidence of the hard-fought and weary wisdom learned from setbacks and victories alike. A lucid, confident and self-assured document of the songs of experience, the perils of existence, and the possibilities that offer themselves anew with each breath. Another death and rebirth from an outlaw who has seen it all and somehow lived to tell.
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Has It Leaked
Hard to believe after almost 35 years of recorded music, but "Random Desire" is technically Greg Dulli's solo debut. Random Desire is also a solo album in the sense that it was played and recorded almost entirely by Dulli in Joshua Tree. The desert locale is reflected in the dusty, worn sound of first single "A Ghost".
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Pop Market
Random Desire, the first solo album under Dulli's own name. The Los Angeles-by-way-of-Hamilton Ohio native wrote nearly every part of the record from piano lines to drums to bass riffs. As always, the music came first and the lyrics were completed later. Recording and writing way stations included his home in Silver Lake, the village of Crestline high up in the mountains above San Bernardino, and New Orleans. But the bulk was finished amidst the arid beauty and stark isolation of Joshua Tree (at the studio of engineer Christopher Thorne). Dulli handled most instrumentation, but an all-star cast of characters appear across the track-listing including The Whigs' guitarist Jon Skibic and multi-instrumentalist Rick G. Nelson, Mathias Schneeberger (Twilight Singers), pedal steel wizard, upright bassist, and physician Dr. Stephen Patt, and drummer Jon Theodore (Queens of the Stone Age, The Mars Volta).
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Norman Records
As frontman of The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers, Greg Dulli has always been a keen student of the extremes of the human condition. Forged in the aftermath of the Whigs’ last album In Spades and the death of their drummer Dave Rosser, he presents his excellent first solo album, Random Desire.
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Vents
Clocking in at a lean 37 minutes, Random Desire is a clinic put on by a veteran master operating at the height of his powers, offering evidence of the hard-fought and weary wisdom learned from setbacks and victories alike. A lucid, confident and self-assured document of the songs of experience, the perils of existence, and the possibilities that offer themselves anew with each breath. Another death and rebirth from an outlaw who has seen it all and somehow lived to tell.
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The Recoup
Dulli is taking the “solo” thing seriously, as he’s playing all the instruments here himself, crediting Prince as inspiration–and that can only be a good thing. The first taste of Random Desire, “Pantomima” is quite promising.
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Qobuz
With a distinctively dark and powerful vocal presence, Greg Dulli is best known as the singer for Cincinnati shadowy grunge rockers the Afghan Whigs. With a career spanning over 30 years, Dulli fronted the Whigs through several phases, as well as working as a producer and with side projects such as the Twilight Singers and the Gutter Twins, before making his official studio debut, Random Desire, in early 2020.
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Uncut
Any playlist is always going to be boosted by the inclusion of a new Greg Dulli tune; with Afghan Whigs on hiatus, “Pantomima” is the first taster of his debut solo album Random Desire.
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California Rocker
Greg Dulli has released "It Falls Apart," the second single from his first solo album Random Desire.
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WFPK
Random Desire drops February 21st and Dulli says he drew inspiration from “one-man-band visionaries” like Prince and Todd Rundgren.
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Noise 11
The album – called Random Desire – was born out of necessity. After the last Whigs album In Spades, drummer Patrick Keeler took time to tour with The Raconteurs, bassist John Curly wanted to return to study and guitarist Dave Rosser tragically passed away from colon cancer. This unfortunate series of events sent Dulli back to the bedroom, taking full responsibility for putting the rock orchestra in his head onto a recording.
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The Quietus
Dulli, a press release explains, was inspired by "the model of one-man-band visionaries Prince and Todd Rundgren," in setting out to play much of the instrumentation on the record himself.
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COS
Dulli’s expansive catalog features a vast array of textured, gritty darkness throughout his time with the Whigs, not to mention The Twilight Singers and Gutter Twins.
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Stereogum
Random Desire will be Dulli’s first concerted effort at a solo album, 10 new songs that he wrote over the last couple years since the Whigs’ 2017 album In Spades, a time period that also included the death of that band’s guitarist Dave Rosser.
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Louder Than War
Clocking in at a lean 37 minutes, Random Desire is a clinic put on by a veteran master operating at the height of his powers, offering evidence of the hard-fought and weary wisdom learned from setbacks and victories alike. A lucid, confident and self-assured document of the songs of experience, the perils of existence, and the possibilities that offer themselves anew with each breath. Another death and rebirth from an outlaw who has seen it all and somehow lived to tell.
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Xsnoize
Random Desire started in the aftermath of the last Whigs record, 2017’s In Spades, which Pitchfork named one of the best rock records of the year, hailing it as a “heavy, menacing work of indie rock majesty…thrilling and unsettling.” Drummer Patrick Keeler was about to take a short sabbatical to record and tour with his other band, The Raconteurs. Dulli’s longtime collaborator, bassist John Curley went back to school, and there was the tragic death of the band’s guitarist, Dave Rosser.
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The Fire Note
Greg Dulli, frontman of The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers, recently announced his first-ever solo record, Random Desire out February 21st via Royal Cream/BMG. Dulli has now shared the music video for the single, “Pantomima,” directed by long-time Whigs collaborator Philip Harder who also stars in the video.
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Glide
Clocking in at a lean 37 minutes, Random Desire is a clinic put on by a veteran master operating at the height of his powers, offering evidence of the hard-fought and weary wisdom learned from setbacks and victories alike. A lucid, confident and self-assured document of the songs of experience, the perils of existence, and the possibilities that offer themselves anew with each breath. Another death and rebirth from an outlaw who has seen it all and somehow lived to tell.
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Clash
Due out on February 21st, the title 'Random Desire' is a play on “random selection”, the method used to locate the recipients in a psychological test where everyone has an “equal chance of being chosen as a subject”.
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Treble
Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs has announced his first solo album. On February 21, he’ll release Random Desire via Royal Cream/BMG. The album was written mostly by Dulli himself and recorded in L.A., the mountains above San Bernardino and New Orleans, and features additional instrumentation from Afghan Whigs guitarist Jon Skibic, multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson, the Twilight Singers’ Mathias Schneeburger and Queens of the Stone Age’s Jon Theodore. The first single is “Pantomima.”
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Indie Shuffle
Taken from his forthcoming album,Random Desire, the song highlights Dulli's poetic lyrics and incredible musicianship, with the 30-year veteran having handled the majority of the instrumentation himself.
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City Beat
The Afghan Whigs leader today released a stunning music video for "Pantomima," the first single off of his first official solo album, 'Random Desire.'
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Kexp
Greg Dulli has lent his name to many projects — mainly as frontman for The Afghan Whigs, but also as a member of The Twilight Singers and The Gutter Twins — but for the first time in his 30+ year career, he's releasing a proper solo album under his own name. Random Desire.
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E-News
Dulli played most of the instruments on Random Desire, although it does feature contributions from his Afghan Whigs bandmates Jon Skibic and Rick G. Nelson, as well as Mathias Schneeberger from his other band, the Twilight Singers. Pedal steel guitarist and upright bassist (and physician) Stephen Patt also played on the album, as did Queens of the Stone Age and Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore.
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Rapidcelnews
Dulli began working on Random Desire in the wake of the Afghan Whigs’ 2017 album, In Spades. Per a statement, Dulli drew inspiration from “one-man-band visionaries” like Prince and Todd Rundgren and pieced together the LP in studios in Los Angeles, Crestline, California, New Orleans and engineer Christopher Thorne’s studio in Joshua Tree.
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Imdb
The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli unveiled a scorching new song, “Pantomima” — the first release from his debut solo album under his own name. Random Desire is out February 21st via Royal Cream/BMG. “Pantomima” opens with a strong bass line, soft hi-hat taps and a prickly guitar lick that soon opens up into a scream and sets the pace for the rest of the track. The song flies forward with a clutched-fist tension that Dulli expertly controls with a vocal performance that swings between a wail and a soft falsetto.
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The Blurb
The result is a rich, and compelling mix of sounds to match the equally dark and emotionally dense images in Dulli’s lyrics, which continue to suggest the brutal, often painful realities of existence, with portraits of sexual desire, possession, and a wrestling with humanities darkest fears. There is a strong poetic sensibility at work in Dulli’s phrasing and language, but it’s as if we’re hearing the verbal ramblings of one who’s woken from a terrifying dream, yet one they don’t want to be woken up from.
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Writing Drunk Editing Sober
The album continues strongly, with the funky, restless ‘Matamoros’ seguing neatly into the beautiful but saturnine .
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Aupium
Greg Dulli, whom you probably know him as The Afghan Whigs’ frontman, has shared his latest solo single “I Falls Apart.” It’s a dark dive built on pulsing synthesizers and drums that convey an ominous intensity. Taken from his upcoming record Random Desire (out on February 21st), “It Falls Apart” is a cinematic track that sends burning thrills.
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Hit Music
The 10-track Random Desire became a true solo effort for Dulli, who played nearly every part on the album, though contributions came from Whigs guitarist Jon Skibic, Mathias Schneeberger of Twilight Singers, Jon Theodore of Queens of the Stone Age and the Mars Volta and a few others. Dulli wrote and recorded at his home in Silver Lake, Calif., in Crestline near San Bernardino and in New Orleans, while most of the finished work was done at engineer Christopher Thorn's studio in Joshua Tree, a locale Dulli says made a profound mark on the sound and feel of the album.
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Eel Pie Records
Clocking in at a lean 37 minutes, Random Desire is a clinic put on by a veteran master operating at the height of his powers, offering evidence of the hard-fought and weary wisdom learned from setbacks and victories alike. A lucid, confident and self-assured document of the songs of experience, the perils of existence, and the possibilities that offer themselves anew with each breath. Another death and rebirth from an outlaw who has seen it all and somehow lived to tell.
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Record Culture
Greg Dulli – better known as frontman of American rock band The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers for the past three decades – releases his first-ever solo record under his own name. Random Desire began in the wake of the last Whigs album, 2017’s In Spades. Drummer Patrick Keeler was about to tour with The Raconteurs, bassist John Curley returned to school, and guitarist Dave Rosser, who played on In Spades, sadly passed away. In the wake of changing times and setbacks, Dulli returned to teenage DIY roots and found inspiration in visionary solo artists like Prince and Todd Rundgren.
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Show Box
The bulk of Random Desire cohered in a six-month whirlwind last year. After writing songs for the previous 18 months, Dulli scrapped all but “A Ghost” and “Scorpio.” Into the void came a narcotic lovers lament like “Sempre,” which gathers dark strength from the fatalistic comfort of knowing that things might never get any easier. It’s a bittersweet kiss off to a lover, laughing at their cruelness with a knowing sneer.
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Utphilly
Random Desire, the first solo album under Dulli’s own name, following canonized stints at the helm of The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers. The title is a play on “random selection,” which refers to a process that researchers use to pick participants for a study. When using this method, every single member of a population has an “equal chance of being chosen as a subject.” Recontextualized, it allows us to realize the randomness of existence, the odd alchemy of emotions, chemistry, and circumstance that baffle us to no end. The reasons why artists write songs and why listeners need them. And even if the answers are evasive, that’s no excuse to quit searching.
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Go Hard
The 10-track Random Desire became a true solo effort for Dulli, who played nearly every part on the album, though contributions came from Whigs guitarist Jon Skibic, Mathias Schneeberger of Twilight Singers, Jon Theodore of Queens of the Stone Age and the Mars Volta and a few others. Dulli wrote and recorded at his home in Silver Lake, Calif., in Crestline near San Bernardino and in New Orleans, while most of the finished work was done at engineer Christopher Thorn's studio in Joshua Tree, a locale Dulli says made a profound mark on the sound and feel of the album.
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Trill
Dulli’s first proper solo album, Random Desire, is a superb collection that veers from the rocking to the melodic, from the haunting to the introspective and romantic. It is a worthy addition to his catalog, which includes the Whigs, the Twilight Singers, the Gutter Twins and more.
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Monorail
Random Desire started in the aftermath of the last Whigs record, 2017’s In Spades, which Pitchfork named one of the best rock records of the year, hailing it as a “heavy, menacing work of indie rock majesty…thrilling and unsettling.” Drummer Patrick Keeler was about to take a short sabbatical to record and tour with his other band, The Raconteurs. Dulli’s longtime collaborator, bassist John Curley went back to school, and there was the tragic death of the band’s guitarist, Dave Rosser.
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Daily Play
Random Desire, looks to be the best snapshot yet of the musician’s dark, soulful style, filled with minor-key grooves and stirring torch-song anthems driven by his whiskey-on-honey voice.
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Record Store Today
Clocking in at a lean 37 minutes, Random Desire is a clinic put on by a veteran master operating at the height of his powers, offering evidence of the hard-fought and weary wisdom learned from setbacks and victories alike. A lucid, confident and self-assured document of the songs of experience, the perils of existence, and the possibilities that offer themselves anew with each breath. Another death and rebirth from an outlaw who has seen it all and somehow lived to tell.
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Twilight Singers
A foremost authority on the sell-your-soul rewards of carnal lust, the high voltage epiphanies of chemical enhancement, and the serotonin lows left in their wake. Therein lies Random Desire, the first solo album under Dulli's own name.
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Heaviestofart
From the Joshua Tree studio of Christopher Thorn comes a collection of melodies years in the making, each stemming from phases of reflection. These melodies radiate from the heart and mind of Greg Dulli, frontman of The Afghan Whigs, on his first ever solo-record Random Desire, out February 21st via Royal Cream/BMG. With total creative control comes a sense of freedom and maturity, which is evident throughout the dynamic 10-track Random Desire.
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Black Circle
Random Desire started in the aftermath of the last Whigs record, 2017’s In Spades, which Pitchfork named one of the best rock records of the year, hailing it as a “heavy, menacing work of indie rock majesty…thrilling and unsettling.” Drummer Patrick Keeler was about to take a short sabbatical to record and tour with his other band, The Raconteurs. Dulli’s longtime collaborator, bassist John Curley went back to school, and there was the tragic death of the band’s guitarist, Dave Rosser.
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Whelans
Therein lies Random Desire, the first solo album under Dulli’s own name, following canonized stints at the helm of The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers. The title is a play on “random selection,” which refers to a process that researchers use to pick participants for a study. When using this method, every single member of a population has an “equal chance of being chosen as a subject.” Recontextualized, it allows us to realize the randomness of existence, the odd alchemy of emotions, chemistry, and circumstance that baffle us to no end. The reasons why artists write songs and why listeners need them. And even if the answers are evasive, that’s no excuse to quit searching.
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Resident
“random desire” is a clinic put on by a veteran master operating at the height of his powers, offering evidence of the hard-fought and weary wisdom learned from setbacks and victories alike.
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This Gorilla
The album opener and first single, “Pantomima,” sets the tone from the sardonic taunts of the album’s first bars: desolation, come and get it.
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Buzz Bands
After working on the music at his home in Silver Lake, a hideaway in Crestline and in New Orleans, Dulli recorded the bulk of “Random Desire” at producer-engineer Christopher Thorne’s studio in Joshua Tree. Among the guests on the album are Whigs guitarist Jon Skibic, Rick G. Nelson, Mathias Schneeberger (Twilight Singers), pedal steel wizard, upright bassist and physician Dr. Stephen Patt, and drummer Jon Theodore (Queens of the Stone Age, The Mars Volta).
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