Jack White has been a part of some of the coolest blues rock tracks released over the last ten years or so and the Detroit guitar cruncher is about to back on the gas with his second solo album, Lazaretto. Following up on his 2012 debut solo record, Blunderbuss, which went on to become a gold selling album in the UK, United States and Australia, the new material will have the weight of expectation propping it up, but if everything else Jack has produced in the past is anything to go by, Lazaretto will go on to be just as well received.
Set for a UK, US and worldwide release date of the 10th June 2014, the album will be accompanied by a select number of stop offs in the UK for gigs as a part of the 2014 tour dates. The downside for fans is that there are only two dates and one of those is at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, which has already sold out (cancelled and refunded tickets will be going on sale on the 24th and 27th April 2014 for anyone already registered, but without tickets). The second UK date will be at London’s Eventim Apollo on the 5th July.
If that doesn’t work out and you’re happy to go a little further afield there are a few European tour dates you could look out for instead. He’s be playing at Dublin’s Royal Hospital Kilmainham on the 26th June, 2 dates at the Paris L’Olympia on the 29th and 30th June, Amsterdam’s Heineken Music Hall on the 3rd July and Poland’s Open’er Festival on the 4th July 2014.
As a taster of the full album to come, Jack has released the first track from his new material, the slightly crazed High Ball Stepper. It’s a tour de force blues rock guitar track with rabid vocal effects intertwined with fiddle and piano strikes that is instantly infinitely loveable.
Jack White provides the thump of the very cool electric guitar riffs with Carla Azar on drums, Catherine Popper taking on the bass, Lillie Mae Rische ripping out the violin, Brooke Waggoner on piano, Maggie Björklund on pedal steel and Grammy nominated singer and songwriter, Ruby Amanfu pulling off the mental vocals effects, along with some light tambourine action.
It’s not just the song itself that impresses though as the video is sheer genius. It features sped up shots of paint dancing to the sound of the music in the well of speaker cones. You can check out the Ben Swank and James Cathcart directed visuals to the High Ball Stepper music video for yourself below.
While it’s definitely sad that as the years go by it becomes increasingly likely that the end of the White Stripes was not a fleeting hiatus, we’re equally glad to still see new music coming from one side of the old red and white camp in the very least. Lazaretto will be released through Jack White’s own record label, Third Man Records, with a little help from XL Recordings and Columbia Records.
Jack White, High Ball Stepper music video:
Jack White Lazaretto track list:
1. Three Women
2. Lazaretto
3. Temporary Ground
4. Would You Fight For My Love?
5. High Ball Stepper
6. Just One Drink
7. Alone In My Home
8. Entitlement
9. That Black Bat Licorice
10. I Think I Found The Culprit
11. Want And Able
