Album Reviews

Look: if you don’t like The Sweet, Humble Pie, Deep Purple, Neil and Crazy Horse, T-Rex and of course Led Zep and boogie rock generally, Jack White’s brand of retro-crunchrock isn’t going to be to your liking, but if that kind of stuff appeals to you and considerations of modernity don’t apply to your musical meanderings, this record will hit the spot. And how long has it been since that spot’s been hit?

White’s classic stuff here emits a strong whiff of familiarity for anyone growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, both musically and sonically, and there’s nothing wrong with that, if it’s done right and White does it right on all counts.

There’s hardly an untried rhythm or riff on this double all-analog LP set, but White’s managed to assemble them attractively, by putting them in some alternative settings and by stripping them down to the bare essentials.

White mixes heavy feedback electric guitar and pure acoustic, throws in some fifties Mexican-Mariachi flash here (“Conquest”) and a smattering of Celtic soul there (“Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn,) and demonstrates throughout a broad based knowledge of not only 20th century pop music, but of 20th century pop music recorded production.

The main message here is that White and his drumming partner and former wife Meg have got this music coursing through their veins and it needs a way out. There’s no let down on the four sides of this high energy release recorded in a few weeks.

This is a deceptively simple sounding production that manages to resurrect the great hard crunch of ‘60s and ‘70s rock that seems to have disappeared not because others don’t want it, but because they don’t know how. Thank White, who knows that only analog tape can produce the crunch and fat bottomed slam that makes this record dig down deep and shake the roots, and engineer Joe Chiccarelli who got what White wanted and surely made him happy with the results that they co-mixed.

This stuff may not change your life, but it will change your mood! I feel sorry for listeners who think they heard this record on a CD or worse yet an MP3 download. They have no fucking idea.