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Time to Shine a Light on The Whigs

In the Dark proves that this rock outfit has lasting creativity and talent.

The Whigs

In The Dark

Released on Mar 16, 2010

Let’s get this out of the way—quality garage rock is not an oxymoron, and bands that hail from New Jersey are not the only acts capable of producing it successfully. The Whigs are veritable southern gentlemen (well, they’re at least from Georgia. I’m not sure if they’re polite or not), and with In the Dark, they’ve produced quite the polished garage rock album.

I love picking out tracks that I think would sound especially great in a crowded venue, and holy crap, “Hundred/Million” is one of them. Appropriately, it’s the opening track, and the guitar/feedback/drum intro makes me want to hear them in a bar while I’m smashed up next to a stranger. It’s got this soaring quality, but the vocals ground the track to keep it from becoming too ethereal.

“Kill Me Carolyne” is begging for an “anthem” classification, at least in my book. Relatively simple guitar parts and conversely epic solos? Check. Lovelorn lyrics? Uh-huh. A catchy chorus? Done.  It’s an absolute treat to listen to a track where the band sounds completely at home in their sound. Sure, they could stretch their boundaries a little, but sometimes, you just want to hear a good rock song. And “Kill Me Carolyne” is just that.

Sadly enough, the next track—while not unlistenable—lacks the draw that “Kill Me Carolyne” possesses. On “Someone’s Daughter,” the tempo drags, and the chorus sounds like something a more hardcore version of Third Eye Blind would write. No thanks. That being said, this one less-than-stellar track appears to be just a blip—immediately following it, we’ve got “So Lonely,” which finds The Whigs back to their energetic and not overly-reductive style.

“I Don’t Even Care About the One I Love” got me on title alone. I mean, how can you not want to skip ahead to that track? Thankfully, the boys live up to the title and offer a solid rock meditation on—what else?—anger and love. Not to keep returning to the “I wanna be in a bar!” feelings that this album conjures up, but I wanna be in a bar and scream “I don’t even care about the one I love/and there’s a black heart inside of me.” Put a steady drum beat behind that, and you’ve got some major musical catharsis going on.

The final track is a great exercise in stretching their boundaries—that thing I said they didn’t have to do. “Naked” is the longest track on the album (6:24), and while it’s not a huge sonic departure, it’s slightly more ambling. They maintain their energy throughout the six-ish minutes, but it’s not as intense as the other tracks. While I think their strength does lie in shorter songs, it’s interesting to hear them push themselves just a little further.

To produce a...well-produced garage rock album these days is fairly rare. It’s basically just Titus Andronicus and possibly Japandroids hangin’ out in that scene. However, they’d better make room for The Whigs. Even though the band released their first album in 2005, it seems like they’re finally going to get the long-term recognition that they deserve with In the Dark.

Download In The Dark here

Posted by Alyssa Vincent on Mar 16, 2010 @ 7:00 am