Jack White appears to be on his way to becoming something of a nomadic rock star along the lines of Eric Clapton by lining up jam sessions and collaborative albums with peers of similar taste. This technique thrives on the natural playing and ability of each member to feel comfortable in an atmosphere of organic, free-flowing writing. This is an inconsistent style, but when lightning strikes, special albums can be created, like Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs or even The Basement Tapes. Dipping his own toes in this water, White successfully teamed up with Brendan Benson to create the Raconteurs for his first venture, before moving on to his second project: the Dead Weather.
This adventure places him with Alison Mosshart (vocals/guitar) of the Kills, Dean Fertita (guitar) of Queens of the Stone Age and Jack Lawrence (bass) from the Raconteurs and the Greenhornes, which leaves White taking a seat behind the drum set for most of Horehound. Fertita makes a valid effort to carry on White's blues tradition, but more often than not, what should be melodies become simple background growls hiding behind heavy distortion and even heavier chords.
On the first single, Hang You from the Heavens,"" the main riff leaves listeners slowly flowing through deep guitar sludge, and ""No Hassle Night"" opens in realms below most Black Sabbath riffs, which actually just makes the track sound cruel and cold. Overall, Fertita's work leaves listeners with mixed reactions, ranging from melodies that are overdistorted, overemphasized and oversimplified to head-nodding blues grooves.
But Horehound is most frustrating on songs like ""So Far from Your Weapon,"" where a good central groove is provided but nobody steps forward to give the song an identity. Nothing stands out by the end of some of these tracks except for the simple melodies and grooves, leaving listeners with promise and potential but nothing sonically powerful.
The drums, however, provide a bright spot, often directing the band from the background with a consistent nucleus and fluently navigated transitions, especially on ""Hang You from the Heavens,"" where the simplified, overpowering sound necessitates the unison accents provided by White. He smartly adds flare and personality where he can get away with it. Unfortunately, his new position seems to have affected his ability to find the melody with his vocals, as except for a couple songs, White has never sounded so monotonous at the microphone (see ""I Cut Like a Buffalo""). Yet Mosshart makes up for it by contrasting White better than his former bandmate Meg White.
The album opens strongly with ""60 Feet Tall"" by adding one ingredient at a time until it builds and works its way to a climactic ending. ""3 Birds,"" the only instrumental song, is intuitively haunting and refreshing at the same time, while straying from the groove just far enough to keep it interesting. And ""Will There be Enough Water?"" is a simple blues number that has a groove strong enough to get you out on your front porch singing along if it's raining outside.
In fact, most of the tracks are solid, they just don't go as far as they could dynamically when everything is in your face and turned to 11 from the outset, which paralyzes the heavier melodies. White's drumming performance and Mosshart's addition still make this interesting for a listen or two, and at the very least, it appears White found himself a match in Mosshart, with whom he co-wrote most of the material.
