Lazaretto [LP]

by Jack White

Overview

Like "blunderbuss," a "lazaretto" is an ancient reference that means little in the modern world, a fact that does not escape Jack White, a musician who specializes in blurring lines between past and present. Contrary to his carefully cultivated persona as a raider of lost Americana, White never, ever was a purist: he thrived upon seizing the precise moment when accepted definitions lose all meanings and turn into something new. This tension surfaces on Lazaretto, his second solo album, a record that lives upon the edges of his interests. There is a fair share of blues bluster -- via Zeppelin riffs and huffed references to digital cameras, the opener "Three Women" modernizes Blind Willie McTell, while he twists a refrain from Howlin' Wolf's "I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)" on "Just One Drink" -- but Lillie Mae Rische's violin occupies nearly as much space as his own howling guitars, pushing White into the left field where he prefers to reside. That eccentricity is the pleasure of Lazaretto, which is by every measure the strangest record associated with White since 2005's Get Behind Me Satan, a record that found Jack tackling the aftermath of fame by turning gothic. He's since lightened his outlook -- all the restored recording booths and trickster vinyl coming out of Third Man Records in Nashville show the heart of a prankster -- but he retains the itch of an artist, thriving upon self-imposed limitations. With Lazaretto, that amounted to adapting a clutch of fiction he wrote when he was 19, using the themes of these stories and plays to not only fuel the topics, but to freshen his songwriting, which was veering ever so slightly toward craftsmanship on Blunderbuss. Here, White kicks the legs out from under himself, allowing himself some signature indulgences -- the aforementioned blues blazers, plus the unhinged "That Black Bat Licorice" -- and reviving a few forgotten sounds (the closing piano ballad "Want and Able" recalls the moody turns of Satan), but generally he pounces upon detours, savoring the instrumental of "High Ball Stepper," demonstrating a facility with hip-hop rhythms and cadence on "Lazaretto," and lingering in dark corners for perhaps a little longer than necessary. All this sound and fury disguises how elsewhere on Lazaretto there are songs as exquisitely sculpted as those on Blunderbuss -- the heartbroken honky tonk of "Temporary Ground," the deceptively sprightly "Alone in My Home," the teasing melodrama of "Would You Fight for My Love?" -- but what makes it a better, richer work is how it simultaneously holds every side of White, existing at the crossroads where modernity, tradition, hard work, and inspiration all meet. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	06/10/2014
Label:	Columbia / Sony Music Entertainment / Third Man Records / Xl
UPC:	0888430639812
Rank:	5029

Tracks

1. Three Women
2. Lazaretto
3. Temporary Ground
4. Would You Fight for My Love?
5. High Ball Stepper
6. Just One Drink
7. Alone in My Home
8. That Black Bat Licorice
9. Entitlement
10. I Think I Found the Culprit
11. Want and Able

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jack White   Primary Artist,Piano,Shaker,Vocals,Maracas,Percussion,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Isaiah "Ikey" Owens   Piano,Keyboards,Fender Rhodes,Moog Synthesizer
Catherine Popper   Bass
Patrick Keeler   Drums
Ruby Amanfu   Shaker,Tambourine,Vocals (Background)
Timbre Cierpke   Harp
Fats Kaplin   Fiddle,Mandolin,Pedal Steel
Carla Azar   Drums,Timpani
Bryn Davies   Bass (Upright)
Lillie Mae Rische   Fiddle,Mandolin,Vocals (Background)
Joshua V. Smith   Vocals (Background)
Dominic Davis   Bass,Bass (Upright),Bass (Electric)
Ben Blackwell   Drums
Dean Fertita   Guitar (Electric)
Cory Younts   Piano,Shaker,Mandolin,Harmonica,Korg Synthesizer,Vocals (Background)
Brooke Waggoner   Piano,Clavinet,Moog Synthesizer
Daru Jones   Drums
Olivia Jean   African Drums,Vocals (Background)
Maggie Bjoerklund   Pedal Steel,Guitar (Acoustic)

Technical Credits

Blind Willie McTell   Composer
Bob Ludwig   Mastering
Jack White   Design,Mixing,Composer,Producer
Lars Fox   Editing
Vance Powell   Engineer
Joshua V. Smith   Mixing,Engineer,Assistant
Mary Ellen Matthews   Photography
Lewis Hine   Images,Back Cover
Trent Thibodeaux   Design
Jo McCaughey   Photography
Ian Montone   Management
Mindy Watts   Assistant
Elfred Tseng   Images
Nathanio Strimpopulos   Design
Ryon Nishimori   Design