Grades:Overall: B-
Music: B
Vocals: B+
Lyrics: C+
Creativity: A-
Catchiness: C-
Jack White seems to have aspirations of being Jack Black. And no, I'm not referring to the eccentric comedian; I'm creating a bad pun out of his last name and the sinister sounds set forth on his newest side-project, the "supergroup" The Dead Weather. The perpetual workaholic White moves so rapidly from his origins in The White Stripes to the humdrum strains of The Raconteurs to his new project with members of The Kills and Queens Of The Stone Age that one might get confused. Especially with all those bluesy riffs and all those band names that begin with "The".
But make no mistake about it. White (and his fellow bandmembers, who seem to contribute as much as he does this time around) is not simply recreating Get Behind Me Satan. This time his music doesn't speak to the devil; it serves the devil. Behind a malevolent (let's see how many synonyms I can come up with for "evil" in this review!) Zeppelin-esque riff, "Hang You From The Heavens" snarls "I'd like to grab you by the hair, and drag you to the devil." Hell, even the 10-second drum solo could be the backing music to Hades. "New Pony" follows suit, referring to "a pony" named Lucifer and "voodoo feet" that "walk by themselves."
Some songs, however, don't live up to the task set forth by Satan. "60 Feet Tall" forgets a hook, boring the listener until a Clapton-like solo that nearly redeems the track, and "Treat Me Like Your Mother" reminds me too strongly of another supergroup, the overrated Velvet Revolver, mixed with the worst moments of the prolific White Stripes.
But Horehound is not at its best when rocking hard; the album's speaker finds his solace by writing "a nasty letter...sent to the Lord" that says "don't you dare come and bother me no more." That track, "Rocking Horse," is a distorted three-minute bad trip through demonic bass riffs and LSD-spawned imagery. And then, half the album later, the band finally comes through with a sequel: the sprawling, indigent "Will There Be Enough Water?" If The Dead Weather want to sever themselves from their respective band members' pasts, this track can do it: self-reflectively lecherous, it demarcates the end of this demon's Horehound rampage with a simple line: "just because you caught me, does that make it a sin?" I don't know, Jack. Does it?
For those of us with inner incubuses, the rogues of the 21st century music scene, The Rolling Stones if they'd taken as many drugs as The Doors. Try "Hang You From The Heavens," the instrumental "3 Birds," "I Cut Like A Buffalo," and "Will There Be Enough Water?"
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