“Freedom at 21,” Jack White’s razor-sharp third single off his 2012 solo debut effort Blunderbuss, still packs a punch. As arguably one of the Nashville-by-way-of-Detroit musician’s better songs — a lovesick garage rock nightmare, turbulent and tumultuous like a fever dream — it contains much of what makes his sound engaging. “Freedom” deals with a loss of control during a romantic entanglement, which ends up leading to some rather unpleasant situations. Needless to say, Jack White is made to suffer.
His personal mythology has always been part of White’s appeal. There were the questions about his relationship with Meg White. There was his marriage to model Karen Elson, followed by a divorce party, and then later, a restraining order. Between his “feud” with The Black Keys, a Rolling Stone cover story in which he fired shots at several subjects, and a subsequent publicly issued apology, it seems his coverage in the last two weeks has been the stuff of tabloids. If ever Jack White wanted the focus to be on his music, it would be now.
Whatever White had been going through in the past had always made its way onto his records, as on 2o12’s Blunderbuss, whose ailing lyrics, emaciated hooks, and wan atmosphere reflected a recent divorce. This sophomore studio LP, Lazaretto, feels out of step in many ways from prior releases, indicating great self-confidence. By letting go of expectations, Lazaretto gets to let loose a grandiose sprawl of sonic concepts without falling victim to album-as-biography.
The music on here cements White’s rock god status. “Temporary Ground” trots along, an old-timey paean to the sweet but ephemeral beauty of life, elegiacally depicting the imperceptibly shifting forces of nature and our place within it. “Entitlement”’s solemn but sumptuous sound at once brings to mind Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, though somehow less contemporary. This may well be 2014’s most highly anticipated record that wouldn’t sound out of place in 1964.
White’s latest effort affords him the opportunity to set the agenda for the conversation going forward, which for now includes killer riffs set against some nostalgic vignettes. The eponymous song alone sets White’s whiplash-inducing motif against an absorbing tale of illegitimate children, wolves, and the Isle of Man — pretty atypical fare for what usually tops charts.
Similarly, listeners seeking out the easy pleasures of “Fell in Love with a Girl” should look elsewhere, as the musician isn’t here to make friends. Instrumental number “High Ball Stepper” gives the guitarist a chance to show off his formidable chops, and by simply dropping the words, White’s able to provide all the right answers to the questions that have been dogging him in the press. No comment, indeed.
If there’s anything uniting Lazaretto’s more accessible cuts, though, it would be the way that White’s curated the aural touchstones of Americana according to his fancy. “Just One Drink” has echoes of everything from The Rolling Stones’ blues to the booze-soaked bar rock of Bob Seger, but White somehow makes it all work.
In lesser hands this would be a recipe for disaster, but full-blown maximalism’s become Jack White’s modus operandi after years of holding back. To be sure, that about-face is one that has been in the works since the last days of The White Stripes, but now Jack is finally able to truly make good on his “form before function” credo. That’s why tracks such as “The Black Bat Licorice” or “Want and Able” only make sense on here.
With this release, White’s nonmusical actions should begin to take a back seat, demonstrating once again that despite this Achilles’ heel, he’d always had a weapon up his sleeve. Whereas in 2003 he might have deployed an entire “Seven Nation Army”, now White is going it alone; however, he’s got plenty of ammunition.
Plus, the video for Lazaretto’s title track shows there’s been another about-face from the days of torture on “Freedom at 21.” By going so over-the-top visually, White allows us a little peek inside his current frame of mind. What we see onscreen is captured on tape, too, on “Would You Fight for My Love?,” quite possibly the centerpiece of the record.
“Would You Fight for My Love?” is the album’s bleeding heart, and it recalls both spaghetti westerns as well as traditional power ballads. As White’s strongest rumination on failed romance, the song plainly shows fame hasn’t made Jack a “dull boy.”
By the time Lazaretto comes to a close on “Want and Able,” with White asking, “Is freedom a gift that we only give to the ones that say I love you?” — you’re knocked back. Detroit’s rock champion may still know how to throw a punch, but now he doesn’t have to.
Watch Jack White perform “Lazaretto” on Jimmy Fallon (6/9/14) below:
Watch Jack White perform “Just One Drink” on Jimmy Fallon (6/9/14) below:
Watch Jack White’s interview with Jimmy Fallon (6/9/14) below: