Sea of Cowards

The Dead Weather has not made us wait too long

Jack White’s project The Dead Weather first announced itself about a year ago and caused a sensation releasing the debut record Horehound. The musician’s fans were first of all surprised that realizing such grandiose ideas, finally creating a collective that could play the music he always strived at White himself got into the shadow. Yes, he did perform several songs in a duet with the vocalist Alison Mosshart, played brilliantly his part of a drummer, but his figure in this project has approximately the same weight as those of the other members. Strange as it may seem, it is exactly this modesty or burning desire to make a band a band or both that became the key to success for The Dead Weather. The only thing one could be worried about was a too long hiatus before the second album release or its complete absence – luckily none of it has happened. The musicians have probably enjoyed the project themselves so much that only a year later they release their sophomore effort Sea Of Cowards that truly deserves to continue this most interesting story.

Almost perfect balance of blues and aggressive tracks on Sea Of Cowards

If the debut record could be characterized with the shortage of blues compositions and the abundance of aggressively emotional ones, then The Dead Weather get much closer to a perfect balance of them on Sea Of Cowards. Thus the album opens with Blue Blood Blues, a rather heavy number with inventive effects. Alison’s role is notable at once – there is more confidence in her vocals for now she truly knows what and how a vocalist should do in the frames of this supergroup. The album’s first single Die By The Drop gets the closest to punk rock, Jack and Alison’s singing here is hysteric, tragic and far from simple at the same time here, whereas the composition I Can't Hear You does not only conquer with a faultless guitar solo, but also with an utterly stunning vocal part full of emotions. A squeaky song Gasoline is another example of the team’s matched work – the instruments and the vocals are echoing each other here uniting into a penetrating, insistent and slightly angry whole. Punk tendency continues on Looking At The Invisible Man, White and Mosshart sing together once again, in such a way that it seems like one person singing with two different voices simultaneously. Not a very serious song Jawbreaker can boast a contagious chorus, a memorable riff and Jack’s splendid work behind the drum kit, and the album closer is a praying-chaotic composition Old Mary on which we can hear organ and a baby’s laugh, and the vocals get into an interesting dissonance with the instruments.

A true team

It is no secret that when talented musicians get together and play something good and interesting always comes out, but it is not always that they manage to become a true team. Quite a number of supergroups are created rather for the purpose of realizing new ideas with people sharing them when it is difficult to do within the original collectives. As for The Dead Weather initially those have been mostly Jack White’s ideas but the other musicians also contribute significantly. Thus the supergroup has confirmed the good reputation of each of its members and as for Mr. White his maturity and evolution of his personality simply arouse admiration. Although Sea Of Cowards is quite a short album lasting a bit longer than half an hour it is a full length studio recording, with the songs of various mood, with special accents on vocals and splendid guitar lines. It is on this integral and complete album that The Dead Weather turns into a true team, therefore it simply ought to continue recording new albums and it does not matter how long it takes, a year or two or more – these guys will simply be eager to stick together from now on.