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.