The Gutter Twins: Saturnalia

Label: Sub Pop

If you like voices soaked in whisky and smoke and lyrics hatched in darkness by tortured souls, this team-up of Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli will be your favorite album of the year. They collaborate with an array of indie-rock fellow spirits including Joseph Arthur, Lanegan’s Queens of the Stone Age bandmate Troy Van Leeuwen, violinist Petra Haden, even (oddly) Brit diva Martina Topley-Bird. The only track Lanegan and Dulli aren’t both on is “I Was in Love with You,” which with its keyboard emphasis and strings suggests a grunge ELO or a stoned Radiohead. Throughout the disc, every sonic nook and cranny is filled with instruments, the dense production amplifying the sense of foreboding that courses through every track. (Steve)