The Dead Weather – Horehound
Another year, another bloody side-project from Jack White. When will he realise that he needs to stop making every idea he has, even if its one that is incomplete, into a reality? In the last few years most of his attention has been on The Raconteurs as they’ve recorded and toured two decent albums. Of course, none of this work plus his White Stripes fame is enough for the man from Detroit. Hardly surprising though nowadays, isn’t it? Nope.
Like all of his other past projects, The Dead Weather (which also includes Alison Mosshart, Dean Fertita from Queens Of The Stone Age and Jack Lawrence from The Raconteurs) is a bluesy, psychedelic, punky band but unlike his other projects it doesn’t deliver, and as such is a disappointment. The reason it is a disappointment is that, unlike anything that was created under The White Stripes or The Raconteurs, this just isn’t as attention grabbing and as fun to listen to. Whilst there’s not any moments that will have you retching like they do in the chorus in I Cut Like A Buffalo, there’s nothing that will set your mind alight either. Bone House is a track that spells out the problem with this album perfectly in the sense that it just seems a bit half-baked and tired. Will There Be Enough Water, the album closer, is also too meandering for its own good. In other words, this is pretty dull in places.
Treat Me Like Your Mother is one of the few songs that really works – delightfully funky with buzzy riffs and real menace. Also recommended is their cover of Bob Dylan’s New Pony, which has been turned into something that resembles a song straight out of the Led Zeppelin rulebook. No Hassle Night, which has a good slow groove, also brings out the best of its singer, Alison Mosshart. Borrowed from The Kills, she’s the real star of this album as she really does demand your attention with her vocal delivery.
What in God’s name is next for Jack White? Join forces with Paul McCartney and Thom Yorke? A band in which Yorke plays on a Mac laptop, McCartney plays bass and White plays synth in a new electro rock phenomenon? No one knows really. Either way, for what it is, Horehound is a real mixed bag of an album combining some really slick and dirty garage rock with some real duds. It is therefore a much more difficult album to like and, when you consider the wealth of talent that is on offer, somewhat disappointing.
RATING – 3/5
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Posted on July 14th, 2009 by Max
Filed under: Albums, Reviews
“Whilst there’s not any moments that will have you retching like they do in the chorus in I Cut Like A Buffalo, there’s nothing that will set your mind alight either”
lol & wtf. nice phrasing toolbox.
The recording just sucked too…
[...] Horehound by The Dead Weather wasn’t as good an album as some would make you believe it to be but it had its moments, like I Cut Like A Buffalo, the sound of Jack White almost rapping some blues over a tight music arrangement. The band have recently put out a video for the song, as it is the next single, directed by the White Stripes/Raconteurs frontman himself. Naturally, this is a video that has several surreal images in it, White looking ridiculously creepy (like some blues rock version of Willy Wonka), and it makes no sense at all, but it is still worth a watch to lighten up your rainy day. [...]