THE AFGHAN WHIGS SPARK MUSICAL REAWAKENING
BANDS NEED TO FOLLOW A FEW RULES WHEN IT COMES TO CRANKING OUT NEW MUSIC ON A REUNION ALBUM
Ours is an age of reunions for bands of all shapes and sizes.
For the most part, reunited bands do well to cash in on the tour and then go back to disliking each other. The musical output rarely matches the original offerings.
But occasionally, the old magic returns, as it did when the Afghan Whigs, ’90s purveyors of sleazy, sweaty soul rock, released “Do the Beast” in 2014, 16 years after their previous record. The new “In Spades” suggests the reunion had more spark than one album’s worth.
With the Whigs playing the Heights Theater Thursday night, we started thinking about which reunion albums are worth listening to. Here are 10, with just a few rules for this exercise:
1. Bands must be bands, not one guy using a band name, known as the World Party rule. 2. Band personnel must resemble their original version, known as the Swans rule (the regrettable “Chinese Democracy” keeps this from being the Guns ‘n Roses rule). 3. At least 10 years must pass between recordings, known as the LCD Soundsystem rule. 4. New songs are required, not new recordings of old songs, known as the Squeeze rule. That said, Squeeze still squeezed in five years after microwaving its hits.
Keep that in mind as you surf through the list. 1 “Do the Beast,” Afghan Whigs Timeline: Released in 2014, first album in 16 years. One day they’ll be too old for such psycho-sexual rantings and howling guitars. But that day has not yet come. 2 “We Got It From Here … Thank You 4 Your Service,” A Tribe Called Quest Timeline: 2016, first album in 18 years. It was like they never went away; bittersweet, though, with the death of Phife Dawg. 3 “Good Times!,” The Monkees Timeline: 2016, first album in 20 years. A plucky energy and great songwriter selection, both classic (Mike Nesmith, Harry Nilsson) and contemporary (Noel Gallagher, Ben Gibbard). 4 “God Bless the Go-Go’s,” The Go-Go’s Timeline: 2001, first album in 17 years. As though somebody said, “Let’s pretend the ’90s didn’t happen.” Sounds like the follow-up to “Talk
Show” that fans anticipated … for a long time. 5 “MBV,” My Bloody Valentine Timeline: 2013, first album in 22 years.
Breakthrough “Loveless” sent frontman Kevin Shields into hiding. He returned with the same loud/whispery dynamic that made his band beloved the first time around. “Beyond,” Dinosaur Jr. Timeline: 2007, first album by original lineup in 19 years. The original trio broke up so spectacularly, its reunion seemed eventful enough. They’ve now made four strong reunion albums, this being the first. 7 “No Cities to Love,” Sleater-Kinney Timeline: 2015, first album in 10 years. Admittedly, it felt like they were barely gone. Until this battle cry of an album surfaced and you realized they hadn’t howled in a decade. 8 “This Is the Sonics,” The Sonics Timeline: 2015, first album in 48 years. Pioneering garage-rock band still packed a frenetic wallop nearly a half-century later. 9 “Cradle to the Grave,” Squeeze Timeline: 2015, first album in 17 years. The dual frontman combo kept their pop hooks sharp on this charming and sing-songy set. 10 “Onoffon,” Mission of Burma Timeline: 2004, first album in 19 years. Maybe they had a plan all along: release an instant classic debut, break up, wait for the world to catch up.