Lazaretto

When <i>Lazaretto</i> roars to action with the sweltering, Hammond-driven rocker “Three Women”, Jack White is on familiar terrain, unleashing a supercharged, garagey blues riff that’s as archetypal as the theme. But when the “red, blonde and brunette” ladies in question appear in a “digital photograph”, the anachronism is a striking reminder of White’s gift for recasting classic musical elements in arrestingly modern contexts. There are plenty of such moments on <i>Lazaretto</i>, like when the title track’s heavy bass rumble is augmented with a squall of 8-bit Atari noise <i>and</i> a vaguely Appalachian fiddle solo. Throughout, White’s brand of heated, high-powered blues-rock dominates, but he mixes things up with breezy, country-inflected charmers (“Temporary Ground”, “Entitlement”) and eerie, would-be spaghetti western themes (“Would You Fight for My Love?”, “I Think I Found the Culprit”). The album’s best tracks, like “Alone in My Home” and “Just One Drink”, combine all of the above in a heady, hot-blooded, hook-oriented package.