Horehound By The Dead Weather

Musical maestro of the modern era, Jack White, is back with his third new band, The Dead Weather. Given how awesome the swamp-rocker or the last album The Raconteurs brought out was, you might be quite excited about White’s new music. Don’t be. The Dead Weather’s first album “Horehound” is 11 tracks of unmelodic weirdness.

White steps back this time to take up the drums and allow Alison Mosshart of The Kills to kill the main vocals (pun not intended). Dean Fertita of Queens Of The Stone Age and Jack Lawrence from The Racontuers accompany Mosshart and White in this new group.

As opening track “60 Feet Tall” slowly builds up with moody vocals and an echoing guitar in the background, it seems like the album might have all the musical attitude we’ve come to expect from the members of the band. But except for a wailing guitar solo more than half way through, the track falls short of developing into anything and only paves the way for more monotonous hollering.

The first single “Hang You From The Heavens” is a song about not knowing what to do with the person you want to be with. It has a sexy chorus that suits the idea of the song, but the fuzzy guitar running throughout is headache inducing at best, and Mosshart’s vocals fail to bring across the emotion contained in the lyrics.

“So Far From Your Weapon” has some hope as a low-down, sultry blues track with a slow beat that seems to come right out of Robert Johnson’s Deep South. The electric guitar solo on “Bone House” is also incendiary. Tracks to skip out include “New Pony,” “3 Birds,” and “No Hassle Night,” which are all great collections of ear-grating noise.

The bluesy final song “Will There Be Enough Water?” sets itself apart from the rest of the album with its largely scaled-back, acoustic sound and slow beat. White’s vocals are more prominent here than elsewhere on the record and are a welcome respite from Mosshart’s persistent wail.

We always knew that Jack White was the face of blues for modern rock; he needn’t have created this new band to try and convince us of that. He needn’t have created this new band at all. Hopefully he’ll forget the drums and be back behind his White Stripes or Raconteurs guitar as soon as possible to bring us better music.