In case anyone thought that Jack White’s “gothic blues” supergroup are a bunch of musical primitives, this album is accompanied by a series of video tutorials that explain how each member painstakingly achieves their ramshackle sound. Indeed, as if to prove there’s more to them than just hoodoo incantations and hellhounds on their trail, they conclude this third album with a surprising foray into violin-soaked, X-Factorish melodrama that has singer Alison Mosshart vowing throatily: “I’ll be here every night, my name up in lights.” It’s a welcome glimmer of kitsch after 11 tracks of swampy scuzz-rock that sound much like that on 2010’s Sea of Cowards. But if the Dead Weather haven’t changed their approach, there are intriguing moments here. Three Dollar Hat has White vowing wild revenge (“You done stole my hat, I’m gonna take your life”) as if the devil’s pitchfork was spearing his rump; and Lose the Right matches the swirling organ riff from Elvis Costello’s Watching the Detectives to a feral Mosshart vocal. Overall: fun, if not essential.
