Lazaretto

Jack White - Lazaretto
Critic Score
Based on 45 reviews
2014 Ratings: #167 / 1042
Year End Rank: #20
User Score
Based on 568 ratings
2014 Rank: #374
Liked by 46 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Louder Than War
The new Jack White album is musical sunshine for healing the damaged soul.
100
The Telegraph

Inventive, intense and unexpectedly fun, Lazaretto is one of the best break-up albums of recent years.

91
A.V. Club

It works, at least partly because White’s version of a big production is more about layering sounds until he hits on something right, rather than polishing something until its defining cracks fade away.

90
Classic Rock
A contender for album of 2014 from the former White Stripe.
90
Uncut
Third Man maverick shows little sign of mellowing on wild and witty second solo album.
85
Paste

The songs are exciting, effortlessly creative and full of risk-taking, but White taps into the vein of classic rock just enough to filter all of his weird extrapolations so that they’re comprehensible for his audience. 

80
The Observer
Jack White returns with sludge rock and sweet slide guitar.
80
Rolling Stone

Literally a house of blues (the title is Italian for a lepers' hospital), with each room outfitted according to White's mood and trials.

80
Alternative Press

Lazaretto finds him simultaneously unbridled as a player, yet meticulous as both mad scientist and personal diarist.

80
Billboard
On “Lazaretto,” White rummages through his cart and emerges with fiddles, organs, slide guitars, and fuzz boxes powered by hand-cranked generators. And is that a leftover plate of Ennio Morricone’s Western spaghetti? Indeed, it is, and if it all adds up to a better album than his debut, “Blunderbuss.”
80
Clash
An emotionally potent and passionate second solo LP.
80
The Guardian
Jack White has said he's sorry for being mean to people – but anger's not in short supply on his sturdy new solo album.
80
Mojo
Post-marital rage fuels another solo humdinger from the ex-White Stripe.
80
God Is in the TV

With Lazaretto Jack White continues putting excitement, fun and freshness back into modern music.

80
Drowned in Sound

The extra care and attention shows too- this feels like a deeper record than its predecessor, 2012’s well-received Blunderbuss, not as pretty but certainly sharper and more elegantly formed

80
The Sydney Morning Herald
Mr White will have you jamming out in the office in no time.
80
Record Collector
Sure, there’s a mildly preposterous, posturing axe-warrior in there, but it’s tempered, often joyously, with a self-mocking feminine side here, and makes for some of his most carefree but considered music in a very long time.
80
The Irish Times
It's a 100-metre sprint of punk, blues, garage and country, with enough va-va-va-voom to leave the opposition in the blocks.
80
Time Out London

For an artist creating an increasingly difficult job for himself, White goes consistently easy on his listeners.

80
musicOMH

This is another whopping, XXL effort from White, proving that although he may get roped into the celebrity dross every once in awhile, he can still manufacture art in spite of distractions.

80
AllMusic

That eccentricity is the pleasure of Lazaretto, which is by every measure the strangest record associated with White since 2005's Get Behind Me Satan

80
The Line of Best Fit

At times, despite the fact that this is his 12th collection of compositions, it’s often as if Lazaretto is Jack White at his most vulnerable.

80
DIY

In taking his time, mining old material of his own as well as others’, swapping and switching personnel between sessions and embracing a little more of the 21st Century, ‘Lazaretto’ is perhaps the most conventionally made of White’s back catalogue.

75
Spectrum Culture

Lazaretto, White’s second true solo release, is a musical return to form.

75
Entertainment Weekly

White’s best songs combine his songwriting chops with his boundless charisma, and Lazaretto has both in spades.

75
Pretty Much Amazing

Introspective where Blunderbuss was voracious, White offers up a banquet of sounds and styles, ranging from country and bluegrass to hard rock and hip hop. 

75
Under the Radar

It’s bold, but Lazaretto argues that White’s legacy may still be intact if he plans on waiting several more years for the third act.

75
The 405

Despite Jack White's claims that each song is separate due to the archive nature of his source material Lazaretto is a cohesive entity made distinct by the range of styles and structural arrangements on individual tracks.

71
Pitchfork

Lazaretto makes all of his other projects sound a bit scrawny by comparison. It’s the densest, fullest, craziest, and most indulgent that White has sounded with or without Meg

70
No Ripcord

The songs that make up Lazaretto are the most diverse on a White album since Get Behind Me Satan, and even more impressively, the songs themselves could stand alongside those on Icky Thump and Consolers of the Lonely thanks to the wonderful arrangements.

70
Sputnikmusic

Lazaretto is a fine and respectable piece in its own right.

70
NME

... a varied album that lacks any monster riffs like the ones White used to write for The White Stripes, but includes enough intrigue, originality and plain weirdness to delight and, in some places, appal.

70
American Songwriter

The 11 tracks are still packed with those “tricks,” but like the record’s subject matter, the occurrences are controlled, nuanced, or flawlessly smoothed out like the icing on a bakery-made birthday cake.

70
PopMatters

This is an exceptional rock album by a guy who really is the kind of rock star he’s aiming to be.

70
Exclaim!

Lazaretto will no doubt be heavily scrutinized by critics and celebrated by hardcore fans, but love it or hate it, nobody can call this stuff "watered-down."

70
Slant Magazine

Lazaretto is full of brash, forceful songs, further indulging the intense id formerly balanced by the White Stripes’ sweet-and-salty duality.

67
Consequence of Sound

Lazaretto can be neatly divided into electrics and acoustics, or side A and side B, respectively. For the first time in White’s performing career, though, the second group is more representative of the record as a whole and more crucial to its success. 

60
The Independent

Like its predecessor, Blunderbuss, it’s a mixed bag, roughly split between heavy blues-rock and country, many songs supposedly drawing on teenage writings White unearthed in a drawer.

60
NOW Magazine
It’s odd that he doesn’t mind how much he’s starting to sound like the Black Crowes. Still, overall quality remains high, making this a more solid listen than some White Stripes albums.
60
SPIN

Lazaretto's experimentation sounds ambivalent, its songs fractured and distracted.

50
The Needle Drop
Jack White's sophomore LP might be instrumentally lavish, but these emotionally vacant songs features some of his worst tunes since the demise of the White Stripes.
10
Tiny Mix Tapes

The only crime Lazaretto commits that wasn’t already covered by his misogynistic solo debut, Blunderbuss, is being really boring.

BGL13
76

ok so first off, holy shit, the vinyl of this is incredible. go watch the youtube video about it on the third man channel. but yeah the album itself is pretty good too. there are a few underwhelming tracks but the majority is amazing.
faves. title track, temporary ground, would you fight, entitlement, alone in my home
least faves: just one drink, want and able, three women

SnowyFighter
72

The tracks that are okay are there, but the tracks that stand out REALLY stand out.

Three Woman - 8
Lazaretto - 10
Temporary Ground - 5
Would You Fight For My Love? - 10
High Ball Stepper - 10
Just One Drink - 6.5
Alone In My Home - 6
That Black Bat Licorice - 10
I Think I Found The Culprit - 8.5
Want and Able - 5.5

halbery
60

sounds kinda lazy-retto at times
EDIT: +10 because the title track goes so fucking hard. i love u jack white

theansweris9
70

I think I just gotta get used to Jack White not making garage rock for half these albums lol

80

Alone in My Home is good for when you've recently become single and you're filling the void by buying and listening to your favorite musician on vinyl from his record store in his/your home state (not that I would know anything about that)

Felix_96
70

7/10

good

Fav tracks: Three Women, Lazaretto, Would You Fight For My Love?, High Ball Stepper, Alone In My Home, That Black Bat Licorice

Purchasing Lazaretto from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement
Comments (1)
Sign in to comment
1y


Added on: April 1, 2014