(Near-)perfect Gentlemen

Hats off to Pitchfork's Stephen Deusner for making me revisit The Afghan Whigs' masterpiece Gentlemen, the bleak break-up record that was the prime reason I was so excited about seeing the reformed band at Primavera a couple of years back. The 21st birthday edition Deusner reviews might be worth getting, if only for the bonus material giving a greater sense of the jazz and Motown influences - influences that remained largely in the background but that only really came to the fore with 1965.