Albums are graded on a five-point scale of "Awful-Eh-Good-Great-Classic". I'm highly biased, so don't take it too seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

The Dead Weather

[#] Horehound (2009)

It has its moments.

Reviewed November 26, 2020

(This is an album that was previously covered on the Rediscovering! Click the link in the table to read a wordier and possibly less accurate version of my feelings on this album.)

One of the many Jack White projects to come out of the White Stripes sunset, the Dead Weather sees him taking up a completely new (to us, they were his first) instrument, the drums. The story goes that, following Jack losing his voice on tour with the Raconteurs, The Kills' Alison Mosshart filled in, and the collaboration was the genesis for Horehound, a collection of swampy, humid, jammy tunes featuring Queens of the Stone Age keyboardist Dean Fertita and Raconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence on their respective instruments (emphasis on featuring, don't expect to get much presence from either outside of the pipe organs). Most see these as positives, and see the Dead Weather as a cool collection of talented folks from the psych-indie-blues world. Horehound does not convince me.

Part of the issue with Horehound is the lack of time in the oven. Interesting riffs, lyrical ideas, and sonic moments pop up in each track, only to never develop, shuffling around in the same spot as where they started. "I Cut Like a Buffalo" is little more than its refrain, and "60 Feet Tall" is a particular patience tester, aiming for epic and instead just passing out in the swamp gas. "New Pony" proves Alison isn't terribly good at sounding domineering either—not great when sexual tension is what she's aiming for. Worse still is that some of the tracks prove the castoff nature of the sessions can bear fruit. "So Far From Your Weapon" is the album's sole successful attempt at menacing into explosive, and "Hang You From the Heavens" (whose release for Rock Band is how I found the band) is just a damn catchy rock song with some good dynamic play and some mighty impressive fills from Jack. Horehound should've been a no-brainer, but instead, it's simply a no.