The Dead Weather -Horehound

Fri 31st Jul, 2009 in Music Reviews

The constituent parts of The Dead Weather make for a pretty seductive proposition. The blues obsessed ringleader of The White Stripes hooks up with Alison Mosshart, the raven-haired, slightly unhinged half of The Kills. He then enlists the help of Dean Fertita; Queens of the Stone Age’s multi-tasking keyboardist and the bass player from The Saboteurs (whose skills are so in demand Jack Lawrence is currently assigned to three other outfits).

Unfortunately, no matter how delectable a bunch of ingredients are on paper, there’s no guarantee they will combine to realise the alchemy required to produce an exceptional dish…particularly if that dish is thrown together in a matter of minutes.

The fact that The Dead Weather’s debut album had a gestation period of just under three weeks shouldn’t therefore be seen as a remarkable achievement. Horehound isn’t a spectacular recording made all the more astonishing by its speedy delivery. But it is a solid effort that occasionally exceeds (but often just meets) expectations given the calibre of the musicians involved and the short amount of time sandwiched between first jam session and final recording.

The problems start with Mosshart and Jack White, who wander around emulating the day job. Mosshart stalks 60 Feet Tall’s open terrain like a scorned alley cat, hissing darkly about her “cruel and shameless” lover (does the poor woman know any other kind?). And although White tries very hard to take a back seat (quite literally as it goes given his decision to take drummer’s role), the album is riddled with his penchant for fuss-free rock and sparse arrangements. So, whilst the likes of So Far from Your Weapon and Will There be Enough Water? are perfectly fine examples of dirty, black-bellied blues, they end up sounding like off-cuts from the duo’s primary concerns.

This might not be a problem for anyone hankering for new material of that ilk, however for anyone else Horehound could feel like an opportunity wasted. Despite the fact the band is positioned as some kind of musical cooperative (everyone takes a bit of songwriting credit along the way), the influence of Lawrence and Fertita isn’t really felt. It would’ve been interesting to see if Lawrence’s folk pedigree could have exposed Mosshart’s less rabid side, or whether the album would have had a wider texture range if Fertita had been given greater scope to showcase the full capabilities of his oddball synths.

When the quartet strays from familiar territory it yields encouraging results. I Cut Like a Buffalo stays true to the album’s bone-rattling ethos, but is feisty enough to test the restraints of the band’s collective heritage. Obnoxious blasts of dub puncture White and Mosshart’s distorted duet, providing a welcome diversion from the pair’s overwhelming influence across the rest of the album. 3 Birds also makes a bid for more creative pastures, ditching the vocals for a spooky instrumental that could have been lifted from the soundtrack of some obscure – œ60s detective series.

It’s unlikely the advent of The Dead Weather will cause Meg White to start scouring the situations vacant pages. Jack White may insist that the band is an ongoing concern, but it’s hard to think of Horehound as little more than an appetiser to take the edge off any nagging hunger for the next Kills/White Stripes release.

Horehound is out now on Sony Music.