The Dead Weather
Dodge and Burn
THIRD MAN
5/10
Dripping with sex, swagger, and a buzz factor they might have to invent a new scale for, the new Dead Weather album arrives—after almost a year of teaser singles—with a bit of a thud. Dodge and Burn sounds as one would expect: it’s noisy and buzzy and barrels forward on a bed of muscular guitar riffs over which vocalist Alison Mosshart snarls and groans. Alas, the result feels a little too cool for its own good. Jack White (the band’s musical overlord) has weathered a bit of negative criticism lately as his retro-hipster approach has been pegged as being more creative branding than organic musicality; this album will not help dispel that claim. Dodge sounds great, but the songs are often little more than the sum of their multiple parts—echoey vocals, Zeppelin-like guitars, and experiments in sonic textures all come together with little meaning. Even when White takes a turn at the mic on the song “Three Dollar Hat,” his wordplay sounds more like a whine-y Eminem than the man we loved a year or so ago thanks to Lazaretto. We’ll look forward to that artist’s return.
