Okay, so
there’s a little too much country on this album for my liking. Do all rock
musicians have to go through this phase? Is it a rite of passage?
Unlike
some artists out there, Jack White does manage to infuse the Nashville sound
into his style, whilst keeping a level of creativity and excitement. His lyrics
are a big help. They’re deep, sometimes a little too deep for a lazy listener
like myself to bother decoding i.e. ‘birds
of a feather may lay together/ but the ugliest one’s always under the gun’.
It sounds cool and all but the preachy proverb nature of it turns me off wanting to deconstruct it and build my own interpretation.
Other
tracks like ‘Three Women’ - a deep
purple-style rock ode to group sex – appeal much more to the meat-headed rock
side of me. When this album rocks, it rocks. The title track ‘Lazaretto’ and the
third to last track ‘That Black Bat Licorice’ stand out for me with their
infectiously groovy riffs – the gain knob set to 11.
This is
definitely a record I’ll return to as there's definitely a sense of flair here, the album being his most genre diverse yet. With repeated listens I might get more
patient with the lyrics and start getting more out of it. Right now, the whole experience feels
pretty lukewarm. I just wish there was less country.
★★★☆☆
TRACK TASTER:
TRACK TASTER: