Review: Lazaretto [Jack White]

Lazaretto- Jack White

by: Lirty Diberal

Jack White, hailing from Detroit, Michigan, is the former front-man of garage rock duo, The White Stripes, and, currently is apart of his own solo band, in which he has released two albums since 2012.

On Jack's first full length solo album, Jack had no hesitations, his songs usually containing the haunting  lyrics and nails-on-a-chalkboard type guitar solos. 

On Blunderbuss, White's first album, he has a song dedicated to his at the time four-year-old daughter, which contain some pretty dark lyrics, such as this:

 'She doesn't know but when she's gone I sit and drink her perfume

And I'm sure she's drinking too, but why, where and what for and who?

And I'm solo rowing on one side of the boat.

Looking up, throwing up, a lifesaver down my throat'

But, this review isn't about the universally successful first LP from Mr. White. This is a review on his heavily advertised, in your face, shut the hell up and leave yourself to dry after you've been drenched in God's tears (amazingly) second album.

Lazaretto begins with 'Three Women', which is most likely about his two ex-wives, judging by how he describes their hair styles/color and location. This track is almost painful to hear, as it's just a cycle of trying to get better and better, which is impossible to do.. after a little while it starts to have U2-riot-song-inspired drum beats, which still didn't do the song anything helpful. 

One thing that I did notice was how similar Jack sounded to Freddie Mercury on the first couple of tracks.

Moving on through the second to seventh tracks, Jack does not hold back anything, unleashing all of the rage he has built up inside of him, it begins to sound like later White Stripes, especially Get Behind Me Satan.  

Again, most of the songs are very haunting, and Jack is just the entry gate to garage rock, and he knows it.

I found that when I was listening to this album, it had a repeating offense of having a strong song, then a weaker song, then a stronger song. I did not see this pattern stop until the fifth track, but after-wards it went back to the same folk/county/whatever you may call it mindset.

I have no problem with Jack, or anyone else/any other band doing this, but if you only have four songs on an album that make you want to turn the volume up all the way.. it isn't the best you could have done. 

Jack White has made an okay album, there isn't much of a difference to Blunderbuss, it might even be okay to consider this album the sequel to the first one. 

I do feel like this album could have been stronger, and fit more into the dark, compact world inside of White's mind, but it is a good album for what was done in the year and a half he had to produce, record,  and release this record. 

Overall rating: 6/10