Jack White the Third is undeniably one of the preeminent architects of the modern music era. At the turn of the millennium he was pivotal in bringing analogue rock and roll worship back into the pop culture vernacular. He has since found additional success with both The Raconteurs (his friendlier, sing-along quartet) and The Dead Weather (blast furnace blues). None of this even touches on the fantastic work he has done with his world record-setting Third Man Records. As brightly as he has shone in each of these separate projects he still finds the time to exist apart from them all as a solo artist. Mr White has certainly worked hard to be where he is today.
His entire schtick as a musical persona
all these years has been the balancing of two contrasting elements:
contemporary vs retro, guitar hero vs balladeer, lover vs fighter,
artist vs label, black vs white. In his past work one of each of
these pairs tended to win out over the other. The
key difference between White solo and White as part of an outfit is
that when he takes time to be by himself both of those poles
tend to get a good working out. When those two contrasting elements
butt heads we as the audience are treated to some of his most
engaging work. This is where we find ourselves on Lazaretto,
his second solo record.
The title track makes for a
picture-perfect lead single and helps to demonstrate this point. If
it had been released ten years ago it would have been a shoe-in for a
garish iPod commercial (do you remember those?). The rubber-banding
guitars and squelching bassline is instantly identifiable as
belonging to White. The breakdown near then end is everything a
thirteen year old's six-string fantasies are made of. It is manic,
joyous, and full of grit. Such a soaring high is anchored by
'Temporary Ground' which follows. Here we have a straight-laced
country rocker that features some honeyed vocals and fine fiddle-work
from Lillie Mae Rische. One concept is rapidly followed by another,
quite different entity, and another, and so forth. You never really
get to catch your balance properly with this album.
When a song called 'Would you Fight for
My Love?' comes along it can very hard not using it as lens through
which we view White's tumultuous personal life. References to love
making and enduring unspecified pain seem too specific to have just
been plucked out of the air. Confessional or otherwise, this
cinematic, dramatic piece has a real bite to it. The rote 'Alone in
My House' doesn't fare so well unfortunately. While not a bad song at
all it clings to the melodrama just a little to tightly.
Is this all
sounding a bit dour for your liking? Do you wish White would cheer up
already and give us something fun to dance to? Then sink your teeth
into some 'That Black Bat Licorice', complete with wacky vamps and
sugary grooves to spare. Or maybe the off-the-wall instrumental
'Highball Stepper' is more your speed. In case you haven't figured it
out yet, Lazaretto contains a staggering number of ideas,
themes, and motifs all crammed together haphazardly. This makes for a
very uneven listening experience but one can't help but wonder if
that was the point of the exercise to begin with. What you have here
is a series of tributes to the things that White loves the most.
Country music swagger, tragic love triangles, pristine Americana, murder ballads, colossal
riffs, and spaghetti western weirdness are all well represented on
this album.
If you were going to try and draw a
parallel between Lazaretto and any of Jack White's previous
work I think you are likely to land upon The White Stripes awkward
finale, Icky Thump. The two records share a wild, anything
goes aesthetic and neither were afraid of kicking against resistance in the
name of progress. We all know for a fact that White can churn out
faceless, by-the-books twang rock without breaking a sweat. The
process by which he can stretch and grow beyond that as an artist
involves releasing albums like this. They are an opportunity to vent
all of the odds and ends that never fitted anywhere else and if we
are paying attention something magical might happen. This is where we
find ourselves on Lazaretto.
Rating: B+
Recommended tracks: Would you Fight for My Love?, I Think I Found a Culprit
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