CD Reviews

The Dead Weather | Horehound

Third Man (2009)

By MIKAEL WOOD | July 22, 2009

3.0 Stars

Photos: The Dead Weather at House of Blues. By David F. Nicholson.

It's no coincidence that four of the 11 songs on the Dead Weather's debut — "I Cut like a Buffalo," "3 Birds," "Rocking Horse," and a cover of Bob Dylan's "New Pony" — make reference to the animal kingdom. Horehound (there's another one) is the rawest, wildest effort yet from White Stripes mastermind Jack White, who as drummer here drafted Alison Mosshart of the Kills, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age, and Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs to help satisfy his hankering for a '70-styled master blast of swampy, fuzz-encrusted blues rock.

Fans of It's True That We Love One Another and Steady As She Goes beware: Horehound isn't White Stripes tea-party cutesy, and it's not Raconteurs good-times eclectic — it's nothing but riffs and 'tude all the way through. The best cuts are the ones where Mosshart and White duet like devil-locked lovers; "I Cut like a Buffalo" finds them trading threats/promises over a funky bayou-reggae groove that you can't hear without scrunching up your face in vicarious guitar-hero discomfort.

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Bob Dylan, More

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