Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 Reviewer: David Coats |
Jack White’s third concurrent band, The Dead Weather, sees White return to his original instrument, drums, leaving vocal duties in the capable hands of The Kills’ Alison Mosshart, guitars to Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age), and bass to Raconteurs bandmate Jack Lawrence. The initial expectation was that Horehound would be another White-centric project, but it isn’t – not only is Horehound extremely balanced creatively, but White isn’t the star of the record’s best moments.
Horehound opens in convincing fashion with ’60 Feet Tall’ and lead single ‘Hang You From The Heavens.’ Written by Mosshart and Fertita, the former exemplifies the dynamics of blues-based heavy rock The Dead Weather was designed to deliver. Mosshart provides a chillingly unnerving vocal, sounding more menacing in her quieter registers than in her defiant chorus screams, with Fertita’s blistering solos providing the perfect compliment. ‘… Heavens,’ carried by White’s syncopations and Lawrence’s simple, swaggering riff, just sounds… cool. Mosshart’s vocal again impresses, conveying total confidence with traces of psychological instability, while ‘So Far From Your Weapon’ and ‘Will There Be Enough Water?’ are dark, cinematic, fundamental blues.
The band was clearly designed to revolve around Mosshart, and what’s interesting is that not only does she provide the band’s personality and mystique, but is also the record’s most memorable songwriter. White’s ‘Cut Like A Buffalo,’ with its reggae-influenced organ and yelped, undefined melody, feels more like a Raconteurs b-side. The same goes for ‘Treat Me Like Your Mother,’ employing the drastic tempo shifts of White’s second band, and which proves how much better TDW are when Mosshart is the vocal star. The strongest songs are those which features change in dynamics, but TDW are at times (especially on White’s mid-album vocal turns) content to throw sheer volume at the wall and hope it sticks.
When Horehound works, it works really well. It gets better with repeated listens and has its share of individual standouts, but has just enough average moments to keep it from being a total success.
