The Afghan Whigs: Soft Control [BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT]

Why you'll love it

This edition comes in an embossed gatefold jacket with a printed card inner sleeve. Soft Control drew a 7.7 from Pitchfork and four stars from The Times.

This edition

• Embossed gatefold jacket
• Printed card inner sleeve

About the album

Greg Dulli has spent close to four decades making records that sound like the last hour of a very long night out, and on their tenth album the Afghan Whigs haven't lost the habit. Soft Control arrived in August 2026, four years after How Do You Burn?, on Dulli's own Royal Cream imprint.

Dulli wrote every song and produced, engineered and mixed it with Christopher Thorn, who adds slide guitar. John Curley works the synthesizers, Rick Nelson plays bass, and Greg Wieczorek handles drums and percussion. Four songs went out ahead of the album: the strutting "House of I," the slinky "Duvateen," "Jungle Roux" and "My Lover," with "Loose Talk" following on the day itself. "The Deepest Part of the Darkest Shadow" and "Memphis, Texas" lean into the band's noir side. John Webber mastered it, with Ian Fogarty, Jon Skibic and Kevin Ratterman helping out on engineering.

Mojo praised it for refining the band's "glittering but noirish template of temple-tightening, heart-clenching psychodramas," and the band took it across Europe with Ed Harcourt and around the US with Night Moves. Best played after dark, with the lights low and your trench coat on.

Also at Kops: more The Afghan Whigs on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Royal Cream / BMG (cat# 964256871), the 2026 album.