Jack White "Lazaretto" Album Review

I really, really didn't want to dislike this album… When I heard that there was gonna be a follow-up to Blunderbuss, I was excited for more of the same, or at least a little more experimentation that could push forward the evolution of the Jack White sound. What I got was really… false advertising. When the first snippet of the title track came out it sounded PUNCHY, it came out with a bang. Distortion, grinding guitars, Jack's signature vocals and his hilarious take on singing Spanish lyrics and the violins, OH MY THE VIOLINS. I was excited, I was ready for a weirdly delayed “Freedom at 21”, and a grindy “Sixteen Saltines”, and a soulful “Love Interruption”. And instead of that we get five or six songs straight of nothing but Jack's attempt at country-rock.

If you've read my reviews before, I have absolutely no problem with artists progressing and evolving into different genres, but this wasn't an evolution. This was an abrupt shift, a whiplash into new territory with no explanation of how he got there. When listening to stuff like “Want and Able”, “Alone in My Home”, and “High Ball Stepper” I hear that he's channeling his childhood heroes, but I don't hear the justice being given to them. When it does get to more message-driven tracks like “Entitlement”, it has a message yeah, but there's not really emotion behind it, it just gets kind of preachy. If I wanted to listen to someone whine about the state of the world, I'd listen to Everyday Robots or Plastic Beach, and at least Damon Albarn does it subtly.

The thing is, I kept seeing collaborations of Neil Young and him and seeing all the different influences that he's stated about his music, about the blues, about blues-rock, and I was thinking he could get people together to make a solid classic rock album with a star-studded cast. Instead we get something like this, Jack still thinking that DIY is something that can still be attained although you have a lot of room for production value and connections that could potentially put your album on the top of the charts.

If there's one thing I can say was good about the album is Jack White as an artist will produce something else and maybe this is just a fluke. He's gonna make a lot of fans with this one and will lose some, but then there are people like me who are gonna want more and are not gonna let another album ruin their good memories that they've had with them. He has the ability to do a lot more, and a lot of the little sounds that he's created for this album are rather enjoyable. The distorted violin is a cool twinge to things but that's about the only sound I really found interesting.

Sad to say that this is album is… (oh God, don't kill me) generic, on first listen you're almost outraged, and by the second listen you're more like “Well, what're you gonna do? I guess I'll just listen to Blunderbuss instead.” I really do hope that there is more Jack White in the future with more songs from The Dead Weather and just other soulful things that he's working on cuz this… it didn't deliver.

Christopher Hopkins

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Hey everyone! I'm Christopher Hopkins, friends call me Oatmeal, and I'm a music reviewer, graphic designer, gamer, and artist. Can't wait to start posting up on here!