“Every time that I’m doing what I want to/ Somebody comes and tells me it’s wrong/ Whenever I’m doing just as I please/ Somebody cuts me down to my knees.”
So drawls Jack White III on country ballad ‘Entitlement’, the eighth of 11 eclectic tracks on this stupendous sophomore solo album. Presumably the song isn’t autobiographical; the Detroit-born 38-year-old has been merrily ploughing his own furrow for well over a decade now.
Nobody could ever accuse the workaholic White – recently described by Rolling Stone as “the Willy Wonka of rock” – of resting on his laurels. First shooting to international fame as the male half of the now defunct White Stripes, he has since been a founding member of two other commercially successful bands (The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather) as well establishing himself as an acclaimed solo artist. A hugely talented songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, he has also collaborated widely, with everyone from Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the Rolling Stones to Alicia Keys, Wanda Jackson and Ireland’s own BP Fallon.
He also runs Third Man, a record store, recording studio, venue and record label based in his adopted city of Nashville, performing on or producing most of the label’s numerous releases (more than 250 in five years). Three years ago, White was awarded the title of ‘Nashville Music City Ambassador’ by Nashville mayor Karl Dean.
His entrepreneurial spirit and business savvy is reflected in the marketing of Lazeretto. The album is available in various exclusive packages – including limited edition blue-and-white vinyl versions, with companion posters, photos or hardback book, double-grooved ‘Ultra’ versions that play acoustic or electric versions of the opening track depending on where you drop the needle, holographic versions, etc.).
Whatever about all the promotional trimmings, the important question is whether or not it’s a worthy successor to his No. 1 selling 2012 solo debut, Blunderbuss. The answer, thankfully, is a resounding “yes”. Sonically similar and self-produced (natch), Lazaretto – the name refers a house where plague victims are cared for, rather than an Italian coffee – effortlessly blends the screeched blues-rock of the White Stripes, the funky pop rhythms of The Raconteurs, and the mellow country vibes of Nashville.
Musically it’s a White-hot symphony of guitars, fiddles, bass, drums, piano, Moogs, mandolins, harps and harmonicas. All of the tracks were initially laid down with his two live backing bands – the all-male Buzzards and all-female Peacocks – during breaks in touring Blunderbuss in 2012, and then further crafted in Nashville over the following year.
While his solo debut seemed to document White’s divorce from second wife, supermodel Karen Elson, apparently Lazaretto’s lyrics were written months after all the music was recorded, so it’s difficult to know just how personal these songs are. He recently told an interviewer that he had found a box of his teenage poetry and prose and purloined some key phrases from those for the lyrics.
It opens with the scorching and hard driven ‘Three Women’ – a very modern take on an old barroom blues style. “I got three women/ Red, blonde, and brunette/ It took a digital photograph/ To pick which one I like.”
The title-track follows, featuring truly blistering fretwork and some interesting theological theories: “But even God herself has fewer plans than me/ But she never helps me out with my scams for free/ She tells me every day ‘Jack don’t you see?/When I say nothing I say everything’.”
Featuring gorgeous backing vocals from fiddle-player Lillie Mae Rische, country ballad ‘Temporary Ground’ takes the sound down a notch or five. It sounds nothing like the two preceding tracks, but still fits perfectly.
And on it goes, rocking out, funking up and occasionally pausing for a breath of fresh country air. There are shades of various influences scattered throughout, but White always owns his material. The distorted guitars on instrumental ‘High Ball Stepper’ sound positively Edge-like (he appeared in a documentary with the U2 star). There are hints of Beck (yep, he worked with him too) in the refrain of, “Birds of a feather may lay together/but the uglier one is always under the gun” on ‘I Think I Found The Culprit’. Meanwhile, the bluesy ‘Just One Drink’ sounds like an old Stones outtake.
Mixing, matching and scratching between rock, blues and country, the louder you play this album, the better it gets. And the closer you listen, the weirder it seems. On the RHCP-influenced ‘That Black Bat Liquorice’, he sings, “I want to cut out my tongue/ and let you hold onto it for me/ ‘Cause without my skull to amplify my sounds/ It might get boring.”
Lazeretto is wild, groovy, tight – and never boring. While there’s almost nothing especially new or innovative going on here musically, it’s all so brilliantly done that it sounds completely fresh and energising. Lesser musicians will doubtless be wishing a plague on both of White’s houses.