Chris Whitley – Din of Ecstasy – Review

Chris Whitley

Din of Ecstasy (Chaos/Columbia)
by Jeff Fritz

This disc gets the Fuzz-Drenched-Monster-Wah-Wah-Guitar-Brain-Saturation award. The title of the first cut, “Narcotic Prayer,” is a phrase apt to describe the contents of the entire album. The tempos move up and down from track to track but the deep-throated vocals remain awash in a highly overdriven, funky, blues-dirge atmosphere. In “Can’t Get Off” when Chris Whitley sings, “I’m trying my best to dissolve,” one can’t help but believe him. Sometimes he conjures images of an almost empty, smoke-filled roadhouse where suffering addicts hide in dark corners. At other times the mind’s ear hears the music at midnight echoing across a quicksand-filled bayou that has swallowed up the dreams of a generation.