"My Curse"

Afghan Whigs
(Sub Pop/Elektra, 1994)

If there's a better concept album about romantic dysfunction in the pomo world of gender awareness, then I haven't heard it. Gentlemen pretty much sets the standard with candid lines like "Ladies, let me tell you about myself/I got a dick for a brain and my brain is going to sell my ass to you" and its palette of dark, churning, R&B-tinged guitars. But Greg Dulli's masochistic masterwork would be only half an album without Marcy Mays's devastating torchsinger delivery of "My Curse," a gorgeously damaged ballad that reminds us it takes two to tangle up in blue.

-- Matt Ashare