The Dead Weather - Sea Of Cowards

Less than a year after their debut, Jack White's 2nd side project gets another full release of basement blues jams. Or in this case, the band probably riffed these out on a mobile studio in soundchecks and bus trips. It's all on youtube via a posted concert on the band's official site. Go look that up.

While reviewing Horehound, I mentioned my aversion to chick singers and apologized for that in any less-than-positivity in my review. It's not that Alison was ruining anything, I just assumed that I was experiencing some unrelatability due to her decidedly feminine poise.

This time... fuck that, she's totally ruining something here. She certainly get some kind of Jagger swagger and a genuine sexuality. Her vocals are gruff and fit the fuzz tones of the dirty bass riffs. But her songwriting is lazy. She's "mad", she's the tired old woman that wants to be left alone... Great, but the thoughts aren't remotely formulated enough to even call it a song.

The jams require something to sing along with- and it should inspire something more than "I can't hear you... but I'm gonna take you to my house so I can hear you." The best track, "Gasoline" isn't poetry, but at least it conveys the sexiness in the lyric with the sexy vocal she's delivering with.



For his part, Jack White doesn't play anything as incendiary as "Hang You from the Heavens", but he keeps the blues on a heavy footed pace. Although when he gets out the synthesizer and the sampler and the scratch effects, it gets a little self indulgent. Which is fine... because its a side project. (2.5 of 5 stars)