Dani’s thoughts on…

A review by Linus Broadbent

Who was surprised? Indeed, we all were, or should have been. This stunning line up for a band is the best thing as a super group since Velvet Revolver or Audioslave. Which both failed to deliver what The Dead Weather did deliver, and guess what that was? Complete originality. Does this album sound like The White Stripes? No it doesn’t, does it sound like the Kills, Queens of the Stone or even The Raconteurs? Again, no it doesn’t.

The album stars of in slow motion, as Alison screams she’s 60 feet tall, not only does ‘60 Feet Tall’ prove The Dead Weather are tight. It also proves that Alison isn’t afraid of the great task she’s undertaken, fronting a band that’s not been fronted by Jack White, that’s a hard duty to carry out. Still, ‘60 Feet Tall’ teases it’s listeners continuously, as it drifts in and out of racing pulsing tempo’s to a slow come down. Dean Fertita (from Queens of the Stone Age) shows his art of guitar playing, as he drives in these pulsing solos in our faces and stops when the time is right, when we have to come down from the high he’s given us.

As the album progresses, we reach ‘Hang You From The Heavens’, the leading single from ‘Horehound’. Does it disappoint? Probably not, it’s certainly a grower, as Alison wants to ‘Drag you by the hair and hang you up from the heavens’. This song is definitely a worthy lead single, especially for an album that was just cut in three weeks. The second single however, ‘Treat Me Like Your Mother’, now this is the blues isn’t it? This is rock n roll huh? As Jack belts out ‘Who’s got it figured out?’ well who has got it figured out? Certainly Jack has, the drumming in this song is simply superb, as it throws itself into crescendos more than it slows down.

To the down points of the album, which there isn’t many, if any at all. But songs like ‘I Cut Like A Buffalo’ and ‘New Pony’ are certainly songs they could have missed out on. Seeing how ‘New Pony’ was a Bob Dylan cover, they could have easily put in the b-side of the single ‘Hang You From The Heavens’ cover of Gary Numan’s ‘Are Friends Electric?’ in place of it. ‘New Pony’ simply sounds messy all over, although not something good ol’ Bob D’ would be disgusted about, but it simply falters. ‘I Cut Like A Buffalo’ on the other hand, the only song on the album that has been solely wrote by Jack White, which turns out to be probably the weakest song of the album. It gives of the ‘filler’ feel to it, the lyrics are hardly present if noticeable at all. The instrumentation on the other hand is even worse, it basically doesn’t turn up and everything sounds of key and the music doesn’t fit around the lyrics, never mind fitting with itself.

As the album draws to a close, it brings out the gems in it and possibly the brilliance out of each individual member of this supreme super group. ‘Bone House’? Where did that come from? The groovy electronic intro might prove otherwise, but it shoots of the blues in a flash, as soon as you might freak out about the heavy use of Synthesizers and organ’s, the guitar work from Dean shows up once more along with Jack Lawrence’s fitting and smooth elegant bass lines. Jacks timed perfection in his percussion skills blows the skin out of the water while Alison smokes everything out with her haunting and chilling voice that would send the devil crazy itself. The later half of the album continues to grow strong, as we approach ‘No Hassle Night’. Goth blues. This is what Jack White wanted wasn’t it? He wanted something different in his hectic music schedule and damn well got it in this track. This song grooves and slides along the path of grinding rock, which fits in brilliantly with Alison’s vocals again, as she groans along to the music of her peers with her sneer of a ‘No Hassle Night’. Now, probably the most deserting, haunting, spooky and chilling song of the album and probably the most bluesy track that Jack has ever believed in, the most raunchy vocal performance I’ve ever heard from Alison as she bellows ‘Will There Be Enough Water?’ well, I hope for their sake there isn’t, because if there wasn’t enough water for this group, I’d gladly let them go thirsty, if they pull out classic tracks like ‘Will There Be Enough Water?’ which is surely a track Bob Dylan would envy.

In conclusion to this devilish experience of music, The Dead Weather pull out all their weapons when it comes to experimenting with the blues. They execute and time nearly everything to perfection apart from the odd song or two. This is what music has been missing, people who are in touch with blues and people that are out of touch with themselves as they feel that music is all that matters, just as Jack White and look at his music schedule! If people thought blues rock was dead, then think again, because this super group has brought what the great Robert Johnson brought to the world and what is that… well I repeat once more, he and they, brought the blues.

4/5