2009 was a strangely auspicious year for music, finding indie rock coming to the forefront and the big, dumb post-grunge alterna-rock of the first half of the decade fading into the background. As the patriarch of independent music in the new century, Jack White has stepped forward as a creative dynamo, singularly propelling garage-rock and retro tinged rock to the forefront of popular music, but also as a figure who looks for the new generation of listeners to embrace old and new forms. Since his earliest days recording at home as the Upholsterer’s and then forming the White Stripes with Meg White, Jack White has been nothing short of an overachiever, spawning a scene, creating six untouchable records as the White Stripes, co-writing 2 enormously successful records as the Raconteurs, producing several albums including the Grammy winning Van Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn, and participating in numerous art, film, and music projects. Needless to say, Mr. White is the busiest man in rock’n’roll since David Bowie. But it is that restless need to create that brought White to his most recent and irrefutably awesome musical outing, The Dead Weather. Their 2009 debut, Horehound, is a collection of swampy, blues-fried, heavy rock, drawing influence from each collective member. Rather than sit in on guitar, White returns to his first instrument, the drums, as Little Jack Lawrence of Raconteurs-fame joins on bass; on guitar, Dean Fertita who is both of Raconteurs and Queens of the Stone Age; and to top things off, the indomitable Alison Mosshart of the Kills on vocals. The album is a sensual push and pull, wherein each member is highlighted for their own contributions, while the group as a whole comes together in a cohesive and amazingly new sound. From the robot-rock single “Hang You From the Heavens” to the unhinged and distinctly-not-country take on Bob Dylan’s “New Pony”, Horehound screams like a banshee and writhes like a burlesque dancer. The dynamic approach is four-starred, and each member gives a truly individual personality to the project—it will be interesting to see how the band evolves on their upcoming second album, but in the mean time this “supergroup” is far more super than most music critics give them credit for. Righteous and huge, The Dead Weather are pure gold in this new millennium, a telling sign of things to come.
Listen to “Hang You From the Heavens” and “Are Friends Electric?” (Gary Numan Cover, non-album track)
Download “Horehound”
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