The Afghan Whigs

Duvateen

Track three on Soft Control and the second song shared from it: forlorn piano and a high croon, sweet, sad and hopeful at once. The title is duvetyne, the heavy black cloth used on sets and in photography to shut out the light – here a way of hiding from the world. Greg Dulli credits photography with some of the calm behind the record: it showed him he is not competing with anyone, not even himself.

Written by Greg Dulli. The Afghan Whigs, with guests including former drummer Patrick Keeler, Petra Haden and Bo Koster. Recorded at Fireside Sound, Joshua Tree; Marigny Studios, New Orleans; Gold Diggers Sound, Los Angeles; and Sycamore, Cincinnati – twenty-two songs, cut down to ten. From Soft Control, Royal Cream / BMG, August 21, 2026. Photograph: Herbert Ponting, Ponting developing a plate in the dark room, Cape Evans, Antarctica, July 22, 1911, on Scott’s Terra Nova expedition – published in Scott’s Last Expedition, 1913.