Light in the dark

As the first project without bass player Hank Sullivant, The Whigs hit it off with a powerful but clean new album. “In The Dark” was produced by the great Ben Allen, who is known for producing the legendary “Merriweather Post Pavilion” by Animal Collective, which is most likely the reason behind the clearer sound of “In the Dark.”

Because of this new sound, it seems out of place to still put The Whigs as part of the garage-rock scene — or technically, the garage-rock revival. From the tracks on this album, there was very little to suggest that the band’s music belonged in a garage. Aside from the excellent production quality, “In the Dark” had much more melody than distortion and the choruses featured much more singing than shouting. It might be that The Whigs are trying to appeal to a wider audience.

Although the sound on this album doesn’t resemble the sound of a stereotypical garage-rock album, there are still many traces of the heavy and distorted rock that garages live for.