Album Review - The Whigs: In The Dark

(ATO Records)

The Whigs were once a great local band of Athens, Georgia. They gathered steam like a grain of sand in an upturned musical egg-timer . They wooed crowds, local and national, with their own brand of southern indie rock planted firmly in their garage band roots. With their third offering they have lost co-songwriter and bassist Hank Sullivant to MGMT only to replace him with a certain sense of smoothness that detracts from their once edgy veneer. In The Dark sees the trio venture into the mainstream losing all qualities of uniqueness and individuality that made them so good. In fact it’s so middle of the road this album should have a white line down the middle.

Elementally, however, everything is here that one would hope. We’ve got the desolate lyrics and harmonious vocals from front-man Parker Gispert, the electric and, quite simply, brilliant drumming of Julian Dorio mashed alongside the deep bass riffs of newbie Tim Deaux, riffs so laiden they could sink a ship. The ingredients are therefore fresh and interesting. The head chef, Ben Allen (one of three producers), gathers these elements and adds the wall-of-sound effect he did so beautifully with Merriweater Post Pavillion . Everything seems to be going so well when the album goes in the oven but what comes out is surely a surprise to all.

What we have then is an album that is so polished and smooth, so devoid of emotion, feeling and intreague that it isn’t worth the time to devour. After a few bites you’ll be bored of the blandness and pine for the days of edge gone by. Songs like ‘In the dark’ and ‘So lonely’ deserve to be housed better and one fears with the band losing their ever important edge the aforementioned egg timer may have just run out on these guys.