The Dead Weather Horehound (Sony)
3/5
By: Keri Kennedy
Jack White’s been a busy boy. This latest album brings the total number of White Stripes extra-curricular activities to (surely) somewhere in the triple figures, and he’s even just announced a new solo single – and of course, it will be released on his own record label, Third Man.
So with a quantity like this, is it fair to comment that the quality level has slipped? While far from the flabby Raconteurs, this ‘supergroup’ (White, The Kills’ Alison Mosshart, Dean Fertita of QOTSA and The Raconteurs’ Little Jack Lawrence) is really, at too many points, a case of the Stripes frontman showboating. But it’s his drum skills this time round, and they’re so high in the mix on tracks such as ‘I Cut Like A Buffalo’ and ‘No Hassle Night’ that they obscure, well, his guitar work. Mosshart herself is only partially engaging, and her range is far from wide. Her work with her own band is way more visceral, synthetic, chugging and dynamic.
The Dead Weather only formed in January, for a jam, and this kind of mentality hangs heavy over 90% of Horehound’s tracks. ‘3 Birds’ is a case in point, an instrumental built round a refrain that veers too close to noodling 1990s’ Acid Jazz (honestly) than the 70s rock posturing White must dream he’s making.
When the pace slows, and when the blues that Jack loves come to the fore, things get better. ‘Rocking Horse’ could be a White Stripes number, so childlike in its lyric and deceptively simple in its structure. Opener ‘60 Feet Tall’ is another winner, building slowly to the PJ Harvey stature that Mosshart clearly idolises. And closer, ‘Will There Be Enough Water?’, is a sprawling romp that builds and builds to a still subtle climax, but manages to leave you hanging (just not from the Heavens).
You’re left wondering if, all along, White has yearned for a band like this. Was he too constrained by The White Stripes, despite his pleas to the contrary? He’s all over Horehound like a rash. Time was when his simplistic approach would make that an alluring prospect, but nowadays it smacks too much of self-indulgence.
Artists in this article: The Dead Weather, The White Stripes, The Kills
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