The Afghan Whigs

I was very late to discover this band. This album was my introduction to them. It remains my favorite album of theirs.

I've had this on CD since it came out and only got round to the vinyl recently, which tells you something. Thirty-odd years in, and I never once felt I needed a better copy. Dulli narrates his own cruelty in real time and dares you to enjoy the swagger, and the awful part is that you do. The band swing where they should snarl, all that Cincinnati soul running underneath the meanness. He hands My Curse to Marcy Mays because he can't bring himself to sing those words, still the most honest gesture on a record built entirely out of dishonesty. I've seen them a few times and met Dulli once, long enough to tell him what this record meant to me. Top five, and it isn't moving.