CD Odyssey Disc 1897: Jack White

Before sitting down to write this review I first restored the wiring to an unplugged speaker and then went down the hall where I exclaimed (not for the first time), “stop knocking over my Doo Wop collection!”

Having two kittens in the house is not always music friendly…

Disc 1897 is… Lazaretto

Artist: Jack White

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover? Blind Guardian showcased Morgoth on his throne with three Silmarils and a dancing elf, (Disc 1820) and Big Daddy Kane had a plate of fruit (among other attractive features) on “Long Live the Kane” (Disc 1108).

Jack White is not to be outdone in the game of thrones, depicted here surrounded by a host of angels, going so far as to use two of them as armrests.

Jack also has the best suit of these three covers, with this resplendent sharkskin suit that falls somewhere between Kane’s minimalist toga and Sauron’s protective but uncomfortable plate mail.

How I Came To Know It: I like most of what Jack White does and was eager to buy his second solo album as soon as it came out. So I did.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Jack White albums and “Lazaretto” comes in at #3. Nothing wrong with it – just stiff competition.

Ratings: 4 stars

In 2012 Jack White did his first “solo” album, having worked at his art first through the White Stripes and then the Raconteurs. That first record – “Blunderbuss” - is a blues-rock masterpiece and was well received by the adoring public as well. I like to imagine how that commercial and artistic success gave White the artistic license to see just how far he could push his unique approach to rock and roll. The result is the brilliant and sometimes overblown “Lazaretto”.

White starts off playing it “straight” or at least as straight as his twisted genius will allow. “Three Women” is a reimagining of a blues song by Blind Willie McTell called “Three Women Blues”. You could argue he steals the idea, but that would not do justice to just how different this song is. It may be inspired by McTell but this is White’s signature “blues twisted like wrought iron” sound through and through. It is a great song, and not even one of the record’s best.

From here, White starts to take flights of fancy along many different paths. The title track follows, a tune that deploys White’s oft-used funk-crunch sound, alongside his best staccato delivery. The song is the musical equivalent of a street rat with a wad of twenties – brave and reckless and flashing green in a way that’s not entirely safe. The song is so all over the place it practically fidgets, changing speed and course two thirds of the way through before giving way to the tortured fiddle of Fats Kaplin. It’s a lot, but also just the right amount.

“Temporary Ground” follows, with a folksy number that feels like when Zeppelin takes a break, only less borrowed. Few artists can take very old musical structures and traditions and twist them into something as new and innovative as Jack White, and Lazaretto is chock full of such examples.

I also love the piano trill of “Alone in My Home”, paired with Fats Kaplin’s mandolin and the occasional drum thump, it is a syncopation-fueled dream. There is also some great loose harmony with a singer I was delighted to discover (for the first time) is none other than Lillie Mae Rische.

I ‘discovered’ Lillie Mae quite independently from this and never put two and two together, even with Jack White producing her album “Forever and then Some” (reviewed at Disc 1379). She’s great, and a welcome additional voice on the record.

For 80% of this record, White is delivering 5-star glory all over the place, and the only time things fall down, they don’t so much as fall as stagger under the weight of their own ideas. The instrumental “High Ball Stepper” is a drunken master of a song but while innovative and filled with energy, has one too many “band warming up” moments to stick the landing.

I had to dig pretty deep in the tracks to find that gripe, however, and generally the weirdness that makes it hard to love every song on this record is part of what makes it better on repeat listens.

Best tracks: Lazaretto, Temporary Ground, Alone in My Home, Entitlement, The Black Bat Licorice, I Think I Found the Culprit

CD Odyssey Disc 1379: Lillie Mae

I’m having a surreal day today, as I deal with life events that I don’t feel ready to share right now. On tough days like this I like to fill any quiet time in my head with either a lot of work or a lot of words; sometimes both.

So if what follows feels kind of like any other review, or makes you wonder just how distracted I am, well, that’s kind of the point. Or as Tennyson once put it in “In Memoriam”:

“But, for the unquiet heart and brain,

A use in measured language lies;

The sad mechanic exercise,

Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.”

Other people’s words help too, I guess.

Disc 1379 is…. Forever and Then Some

Artist: Lillie Mae

Year of Release: 2017

What’s up with the Cover? Another Giant Head Cover. This one has Lillie Mae staring very intently at me and I’m not gonna lie; I like it.

How I Came To Know It: I heard about Lillie Mae through her 2019 album “Other Girls” and this was just me drilling through her back catalogue.

How It Stacks Up: I have two Lillie Mae albums, and if you’re a careful reader you’ll already know what they are. Of the two, “Forever and Then Some” comes in at #2.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

This album had a disadvantage in that it came to me at a time that I was heavily distracted by life. As a result it played to me through a bit of a haze and never really sank in the way it might have if I’d heard it under better circumstances. That said, a record’s gotta stand on its own two feet, regardless of circumstances. Art doesn’t get to choose when it comes your way and in the case of the Odyssey, I rarely get to choose when I seek out any particular album.

“Forever and Then Some” is a solid alt country record that makes me hope that Lillie Mae is around making music for a long time. It has a slow mosey to it that goes so far to even get to the edge of “country” and look out onto the edges of “western” on the horizon. It isn’t the subject matter that does this, but rather an overall sound that evokes worn wooden floorboards and long cinematic John Ford shots looking through farmhouse doors at desolate desert vistas.

Lillie Mae’s vocals are full of grit and hurt. They won’t bowl you over with power or range, but they’ll dig deep nonetheless, scraping away at you down in your bones. She sings about hurt, heartache and hard living and she comes away as authentic every time.

She’s at her best when she’s singing about regret and bad luck. “Wash Me Clean” is a song that speaks of the metaphorical grime that builds up over the years. While the song is mostly mournful, there is a strange hope in there, exemplified by the undulating melody that has a bit of a Rankin Family feel, if the Rankins sang less about rural barn dances and more about the hangover the morning after.

The musicianship on the record is exemplary. Lillie Mae is a member of the Rische family. They toured for many years as a band called Jypsi, and all that playing time translates to a sound that is both organic and precise. Noteworthy is the mandolin playing of sister Scarlett Rische, but Lillie Mae is no slouch on the fiddle either. The two of them do all the songwriting as well, with Lillie Mae writing most of the songs solo, and Scarlett helping out on two or three. The harmonies are what you’d expect from sisters that have played music together all their life: sublime.

“To Go Wrong” has a real “shit happens” vibe. It shares a dark view of life with a chorus of “good things were meant to go wrong.” Not always true, but it can feel that way when it happens, and Lillie Mae’s hurtful warble underscores the point.

The record is country, but it comes with a healthy dose of bluegrass sensibilities, with a lively jump on the rhythm and all the players getting a ‘turn’ to show off their talents. It also keeps everybody kept nice and even in the mix. The album was produced by Jack White, who shows his deep respect to these country and bluegrass traditions. White may be a blues-rocker himself, but like Rick Rubin, he has a knack for capturing the sound and essence of the act he’s producing, and then bringing it to full-flower.

The record didn’t always penetrate down deep like I wanted it to, and sometimes the production in striving to be rustic and authentic strayed into “tinny” territory. Sorry, Jack. However, these were minor moments on a record that has such solid songwriting and musicianship that I know it will continue to sink in both deeper and better on each new listen.

Best tracks: Honky Tonks and Taverns, Wash Me Clean, These Daze, Forever and Then Some, To Go Wrong