My Amazon Reviews: Jack White "Lazaretto"

Wherefore art thou Lazaretto
3 Out Of 5 Stars

A step back from his solo debut, "Blunderbuss," Jack White goes very scattershot on his second solo album, "Lazaretto." Recorded with the all-male Buzzards and all-female Peacocks alternating tracks, the focused energy of the debut is missing here. The time spent in Nashville seems to have guided Jack White into some more country elements, and not in a good way.

There's even a full on twangy ballad, "Alone in My Home," a duet with Lille Mae Rische, that meanders a bit but not so much as the following song, "Entitlement." This feels more like a Neil Young song at its heart. If you're looking for rockers, there are a few. "That Black Bat Licorice" and "Just One Drink" mix it up with white signature crunchy guitars and a touch of Rolling Stones swagger. And just to make sure he hasn't lost his fire, there's a white-hot instrumental called "Highball Stepper." But where "Blunderbuss" had a fire that burned all the way through the album, "Lazaretto" is White experimenting. That's a good thing, because between all his time in separate bands, he's earned the right.

"Lazaretto," which is named after an 18th century asylum, is Jack White exorcising what seems like some of the thoughts in his head and guitar that don't have an outlet in The Dead Weather or The Raconteurs. Again this is not a bad thing. But it does lead to what is essentially an average album.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Jack White "Blunderbuss"

All Aboard The Blunderbuss
5 Out of 5 Stars

Well, no one can claim that Jack White was hoarding his best material for the Dead Weather or Raconteurs albums. "Blunderbuss," his first official solo album, is top heavy with raucous guitars, southern-fried blues, big, liquid guitar fuzz-bomb solos, and White's odd view of the world. When your first song is about a woman who - literally - takes pieces of you with her, you know you're not in for your typical guitar hero album.

"Blunderbuss" tackles the radical sides of love almost as viciously as Marilyn Manson did on his new album. On the big noise of "Sixteen Saltines," White sings about the femme fatale whose "spiked heels put a hole in the lifeboat." Or "Love Interruption," the acoustic-ish number where White wants her so bad that he wants to turn "His friends into enemies." He's got it bad, and for us, that's good. Or the title track, where he moans that "doing what two people need is never on the menu."

Along with the great guitar, While pulls out an oldie to play about with (and would have fit in just as nicely on his production of Wanda Jackson), "I'm Shakin'." Originally by bluesman Little Willie John (and well covered in the 80's by The Blasters), White gets playful, again about another questionable lady who'll make him 'noivous' or get his locks clipped ala Samson and Delilah. While I certainly can't psychoanalyze the guy's "Blunderbuss" obsession with threatening women, I do hear the grooves in the album that he's inspired to make. His guitar is doing the bulk of the talking, the songs are all killer. This is on my shortlist for favorite album of 2012.

   

My Amazon Reviews: The Raconteurs "Broken Boy Soliders"

Are You Steady Now
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Pegging "Broken Boy Soldiers" as a Jack White album would be depriving yourself of some really rocking power-pop. Those other guys - Vocalist Brendan Benson, drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence - aren't household name enough to really call this a super-group, but they are old buddies. In fact, only Benson has had what one calls any serious success as a writer performer prior to this, and mainly as a power-popper with a serious fetish for classicist 60's pop. Which is what makes "Broken Boy Soldiers"  and The Raconteurs so interesting; it indulges White in some cool 60's psychedelic pop (the title song) as well as shakes Benson loose from his usual mode (especially on the initial single, "Steady As She Goes").

What BBS also does is show what White can do when expanded out from the confines of The White Stripes. The Raconteurs have some serious muscle, and they flex it well. They also are smart enough to to overwork the issue, as the album clocks in at barely a half hour and 10 songs total. It's also cool to note just how well Benson and White blend as singers, making some of the pop harmonies here positively charming. On the other hand, given the way White bent the landscape for The White Stripes, you won't hear anything earth-shattering on BBS. (Given how radically the follow-up, "Consolers of The Lonely" would veer towards more raucous guitar rock, the traditionalism of "Broken Boy Soldiers" is even more surprising for its normalcy.) What you get is a solidly created power-pop rocker that holds its own against all of White's over projects, as well as gives Benson a little more street cred.

   

My Amazon Reviews: Brendon Benson "My Old Familar Friend"

Raconteur Reconnaissance
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Brendon Benson has carved out a nice little niche for himself as a power-popper extraordinaire. He's cut albums that use the blueprint of bands like The Who and The Beatles (and then their acolytes, like Jellyfish or Matthew Sweet), but his three albums prior attracted mostly critical attention and a devoted cult audience. One of those fans was Jack White, who pulled Benson into the rocking Raconteurs, which raised his profile sufficiently enough to get him another record deal, this time with ATO.

"My Old Familiar Friend" will surprise those familiar with Benson only via his Jack White friendship, but not those who have loved his albums like "One Mississippi." Benson flaunts his love of Paul McCartney from the first notes of "Whole Lot Better." There's a kick of Motown in the swirling strings of "Garbage Day." "Misery" even has a little bit of an Attractions kick to it. All across the album, there's a cheerful vibe to which the sixties were the most fun of the musical decades.

What does that mean for you (or for Benson, for that matter)? Depends on your record collection. "My Old Familiar Friend" will slot in nicely if you slavishly pour over your Jason Faulkner, Matthew Sweet, Big Star and Badfinger albums. Seeing as PowerPoppers are something of an insular breed of fanatic, then that's about the best recommendation I could give as to whether or not you'll like this Cd and want to buy a copy for yourself.

   

My Amazon Reviews: Wanda Jackson "The Party Ain't Over"

Needed more ripping, less contemplation  
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Jack White is back in the respect your elders phase of his production psyche, giving 50's rockabilly Queen Wanda Jackson a spin in his Third Man stable. I was lucky enough to see Mrs. Jackson play live this year at a festival, and have to admit, wasn't expecting much. After all, the woman taking the stage is in her mid-70's, so the best I was figuring on was a jukebox experience.

Boy, was I wrong. She came on stage and burned the audience to a cinder.

Her voice might be catching up, her energy and performing skills are still at dynamo stage. Hence, went right home and picked up a copy of "The Party Ain't Over," which Wanda described from the stage as being produced by White with "a velvet brick." Like he did for Loretta Lynn's "Van Lear Rose," White surrounds Jackson with elements that would seem perfect to her past, at the same time throwing in curve-balls that throw you for a loop. Sometimes it works (her bluesed out cover of Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good," the rockabilly standard "Nervous Breakdown") and just as often, not. Why cover "Rum and Coca-Cola" at all? And while Jackson has made a latter day career singing on the country-gospel circuit, "Dust on The Bible" falls flat.

There is also the question of White's production. Jackson is a force of nature, therefore, the Phil Spector wall of sound that buries some of these songs is reverb and horns weighs "Busted" (another odd selection) and "Teach Me Tonight" down. She fares so much better on Bob Dyaln's "Thunder On The Mountain" (allegedly recommended to her straight from Dylan) because White and Wanda manage to balance each other. You get the impression that White was maybe over-thinking the album when all he really needed to do was bring in Jackson's live band and record them studio verite. Jackson may be 73 years old, but she can still rip it up.

My Amazon Reviews: Dead Waether "Sea of Cowards"

Shake your hips like battleships
4 Out of 5 Stars

No one does dirty guitar rock these days better than Jack White. His second album with his latest band, Dead Weather, picks up right where the last one let off. "Sea Of Cowards" brings back the sludge-like jamming sound introduced on "Horehound," adds creepy effects and makes Jack White's voice almost interchangeable with lead singer Alison Mosshart. The seventies they want to emulate is more Blue Cheer than Led Zep, even if the guitars still borrow relentlessly (and loudly) from the Jimmy Page playbook.

If that kind of heavy blues-rock from White's Nashville garage sounds like heaven to you, then by all means pick this up. Little bits will stick you, like White and Mosshart barking "I'm Mad Hah Hah!" at each other, or the anger at an ex Mosshart drills into "Die By The Drop." There's also little moments of playfulness, like the video game bleeps that open "The Difference Between Us."

The spookiest moment comes at the end, where White delivers "Old Mary."

"Old Mary, full of grease,
Your heart stops within you,
Scary are the fruits of your tomb
and harsh are the terms of your sins."

It's blasphemous, creepy and goofy all at the same time. All but perfect for Halloween parties, and brings "Sea Of Cowards" to a haunting close.