The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia (2008)

The first album from the collaboration forged in late 2003 by Mark Lanegan and fellow maverick singer-songwriter Greg Dulli. "Saturnalia" finds the Dulli nicknamed "Satanic Everly Brothers" going even deeper into the shadows than ever before. It proves rootsy but baroque, handmade yet modernist, teeming with siren melodies that don't resolve. The cumulative effect proves internal yet epic: the netherworld symphonics of Mogwai, Sigur Ros, and Bohren und der Club of Gore are touchstones, alongside the sprawling emotions of Pink Floyd, the melodically catchy paranoia of the Beach Boys, the primal confessionals of John Lennon. Still, what Dulli and Lanegan achieve ultimately feels like the determinedly individual product of two auteurs coming together.