It’s just over a year since Jack White let rip with his second solo platter Lazaretto, and now the genre- mangling visionary is back with The Dead Weather’s third full-length release.
This dirty, cranked-up, supergroup – The Kills’ Alison Mosshart, guitarist and keys player Dean Fertita (Queens Of The Stone Age), bassist Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs, The Greenhornes) and Mr White on drums – have been slaying convention since 2009. Dodge And Burn rallies us through an even heavier, darker and more intense journey than debut Horehound or 2010’s Sea Of Cowards. Chaotic and vibe-dripping music and a beautifully unpredictable Third Man Studio production approach from White scuttle around centre stage.
Take the seething Led-Zep-in-the-garage fury of album opener I Feel Love (Every Million Miles), the spooky 90s Beastie-isms of Three Dollar Hat or the twisted funk strut riffage of Too Bad. Hell, we even get a full-blown orchestra on final track Impossible Winner, which could likely sit pretty as a future Bond theme.
We haven’t had a new Dead Weather album for half a decade, but that’s hardly surprising when you take into account how busy White and his co-conspirators are. That lack of time also means no touring. More’s the pity, but we can feel resolutely thankful that The Dead Weather are still finding time to cut records as fine as this.
