Over the course of his career, whether in the Afghan Whigs or Twilight Singers, Greg Dulli has covered acts as diverse as the Supremes, TLC, Fleetwood Mac, Björk, and John Coltrane with often striking results. At the very least, such earnest, even revelatory stunts revealed a craftsman's grasp of context, the notion that even the tried and true can be taken in a new direction by a different voice. Indeed, Dulli's honed his personality as the premier alpha letch to such perfection that he's able to twist whatever material he's singing to suit his needs. Were his schedule lax enough to allow such an indulgence, he'd make one hell of a wedding singer.
Given Dulli's track record, it's no shock that the Gutter Twins would get around to recording some covers of their own. At the least, Dulli and partner/complement Mark Lanegan have just a single album's worth of material to their collective name, so an eight-song EP of mostly cover tracks (plus a couple of previously unreleased originals) injects some new blood into a project. Another impetus for Adorata was the passing of Eleven/Queens of the Stone Age singer/organist Natasha Shneider, who died of cancer earlier this year. Portions of the EP's proceeds will go to her memorial fund.
Frankly, getting Shneider's name out there, not to mention covering Eleven's "Flow Like a River", could make more of an impact than whatever money is raised by the internet-only sales of this solid EP. "Flow Like a River", from Eleven's 2003 disc Howling Book, is a perfect fit for the Gutter Twins, who don't reinvent the song so much as give it a little kick. The same could be said of some of the other cover choices on Adorata-- Vetiver's "Belles", for example, is pushed slightly out of psych-folk mode, but the version here sticks pretty close to the spirit of the original.
Swedish songwriter José González, however, gets the full treatment with his "Down the Line", which is given a set of cojones courtesy tough drums and some pounding piano, transforming this track into a veritable anthem. Elsewhere Primal Scream's "Deep Hit of Morning Sun" is given a funky facelift that streamlines the hallucinogenic cyber-punk "Venus in Furs"-isms of the original to suit Dulli and Lanegan's collective M.O.
The traditional "St. James Infirmary", which Lanegan recently recorded with Isobel Campbell, is reprised here, with Dulli as duet partner and Lanegan's baritone once again perfect for the mournful blues of this death ballad. He's great on Scott Walker's "Duchess", too, another track that the Gutter Twins leave largely alone, wisely recognizing it as a song you don't mess around with. While no one would ever accuse the enigmatic Walker of excessive sunniness, there's an airiness and openness to this reading at refreshing odds with the Twins' more typical claustrophobic sound.
Which brings us to the band's new tracks, which should surprise no one by reverting back to the expected darkness and intensity. It's called playing to your strengths, which the slow-burn "Spanish Doors" and the particularly Whigs-y "We Have Met Before" (both led by Lanegan) do well. Or well enough, since flipped on their head those same strengths could be seen as limiting weaknesses. Certainly no one expects smiley face music from these guys, but it'd be nice to know such a side exists in more than just fleeting glimpses. As the pair gets more and more comfortable with the idea of being a band rather than a one-off, maybe we'll start to get more of the risks this EP only hints at. Until then, Adorata simply keeps the fire stoked and the scent of brimstone swirling as the group's smoke-obscured future comes into focus.
