The Dead Weather - Hang You From The Heavens [Single]

Third Man Records

March 13, 2009, 07:57 PM

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In case you haven’t heard yet, musical genius and saviour of the sonic-world (okay, my personal, bias opinion there...) Jack White of the stripey-fame has yet another new band. The Raconteurs? No, they’re old news – Jack has once again teamed up with Little Jack from said band and Dean Fertita (Queens Of The Stone Age) although the main-man this time featuring on drums as well as vocals for the first time as a main role for him.

‘Hang You From The Heavens’ is the first ever release from this spanking new super-group and a certain Miss Alison Mosshart from The Kills makes an appearance as guest vocalist and gives the track an extra subtle flavour. The track is already available from iTunes as is a ‘B-Side’ (do digital tracks have two sides? This shows White’s nostalgic taste and love of the history of music) cover of Gary Numan’s classic ‘Are Friends Electric?’ It is not yet known if we will ever see a physical release of this track (150 limited edition 7” vinyls have already been distributed to selected friends of the band) but a long player, ‘Horehound’, has been given a potential release date of June by Jack White’s label ‘Third Man Records’, who are masterminding the project.

The single offers the usual moody, distorted blues timbre that we can associate with these musicians but as prominent as Mosshart’s vocal is on the recording, her overall contribution doesn’t really validate itself as it does not sound terribly unlike anything else that White has released, forcing the question what exactly has she brought to the sound? Perhaps Jack simply wanted to collaborate with her at some point and The Dead Weather seemed perfect, but this can only be described as a ‘feature’ more than a collaboration because her influence does not stand out enough in the song writing at all. The sheer rawness of the sparse drum introduction and the sexiness of the contrast between the rough guitars and the clean vocals is at first, enticing and promising but after a little while it becomes rather notable that the track has no intentions of progressing anywhere. A misleading middle eight teases the listener into expecting more from The Dead Weather but we are unfortunately just left hanging.

It’s great to see these incredibly talented musicians working together again and coming up with something new but for me, the band isn’t different enough to earn it’s keep in the flooded world of guitar music. Saying that however, Jack White is an astonishingly diverse and creative composer and has never failed to impress when the music community thinks that he is all out of ideas. Horehound has the potential to be an exciting record, although Hang You from The Heavens suggests that maybe we shouldn’t set our expectations too high. Please surprise us again Jack!

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