The Dead Weather, 'Horehound'

Release date: July 14, 2009
Record label: Third Man/Warner Bros.
Official Web site: http://www.thedeadweather.com/

The buzz: Jack White, the hardest working man in rock ’n’ roll, returns to the spotlight with his most ambitious project to date. The Dead Weather features the White Stripes/Raconteurs leader producing, playing drums and singing in this supergroup of sorts rounded out by vocalist Alison Mosshart (the Kills), bassist Jack Lawrence (the Raconteurs) and guitarist Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age).

The verdict: The Dead Weather’s striking debut disc drips with dark sexual tension. Bullwhip guitar and bludgeoning drums—along with spooky keyboards—dominate this arresting collection largely written or co-written by White. Mosshart and the erstwhile Detroit garage rocker split singing duties. Their voices share the same sinister edge—making them the ideal vocal pair for an album teeming with sadistic urges. “I'd like to grab you by the hair/And hang you up from the heavens,” goes the chorus to the disc’s first single. The lone cover on the album, a brilliantly brutal remake of “New Pony,” an obscure Bob Dylan song from his 1978 album “Street Legal,” reinforces the idea of romance as blood sport. “Come over here, pony/I wanna climb up one time on you,” White snarls over wicked guitar riffs. “Well, you're so bad and nasty/But I love you, yes I do,” completes the phrase—and deftly describes our feelings about the album. 

Did you know? “Horehound” was one of the first projects recorded and mixed at Jack White’s Third Man Studios in Nashville, Tenn., where White promises to record all of his own future projects as well as albums by fellow travelers like Jack Lawrence's other band, the Greenhornes, Mildred and the Mice, and the Dex Romweber Duo.

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