Saturnalia - SP761

Saturnalia is the anticipated first album from The Gutter Twins, the collaboration forged in late 2003 by Mark Lanegan and fellow maverick singer-songwriter Greg Dulli. Saturnalia finds the axis Dulli nicknamed “the Satanic Everly Brothers” going even deeper into the shadows than ever before. Mystical, unpredictable, ultimately masterful, the album both embodies and defies any expectations suggested by the principals’ individual notoriety. Pointedly not resting on the sonic laurels of their previous successes, Saturnalia instead proves rootsy but baroque, handmade yet modernist, teeming with siren melodies that don’t resolve. Produced by Dulli and Lanegan along with the band’s unofficial third member Mathias Schneeberger, Saturnalia’s eerie modal swirls trap the listener in each song’s atmosphere; simultaneously evoking everything from Indian sitars to Appalachian folk and Delta grit, the drones inadvertently create narcotic hooks. Spartan electronica indelibly collides with spooky space blues on “Who Will Lead Us?”; “Idle Hands” fuses Middle Eastern exoticism with shocking guitar riffs that shoot AC/DC boogie into another fucking galaxy. The cumulative effect proves internal yet epic: the netherworld symphonics of Mogwai, Sigur Ros and Bohren und der Club of Gore are touchstones, alongside the sprawling emotions of Pink Floyd, the melodically catchy paranoia of the Beach Boys, the primal confessionals of John Lennon. Still, what Dulli and Lanegan achieve here ultimately feels like the determinedly individual product of two auteurs coming together.

If you pre-order Saturnalia on CD or on glorious, incredibly expensive 180-gram, double LP by March 4th, you’ll get $2 off the regular Sub Pop Megamart price (that’s already $2 off the retail price – generosity is totally our thing). In other words, until March 4th, Saturnalia will be going for $10 on CD, $12 on LP. After March 4th, it’ll be the still very reasonable $12 CD/$14 LP. Also, being the deal-sweeteners that we are, we’re going to give the first 200 pre-orderers a CD booklet autographed by both Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli (see note). That’s a limited offer, folks – when they’re gone, that’s it. And as with all of our online orders, you’ll get Gutter Twins-related stickers and buttons.

Attention! As we have mentioned from time to time here on the Sub Pop web thingy, most of the LPs that we put out come with an enclosed coupon enabling you to download all of the album’s songs as mp3s FOR FREE. The vinyl format for Saturnalia, for example, includes one of these very coupons.

Note: Order numbers have officially exceeded the number of autographed booklets we have. Newbury Comics online has a similar offer. You can see if they have any more autographed booklets available right here

Pitchfork review of Saturnalia

Released: 2008-03-04 (CD), 2008-03-04 (2xLP)