I’m a little torn about the new Dead Weather album. (Oh, and I’d advise you to pay no attention to that video when the site comes up. The song is okay, but the video looks like a renaissance fest acid trip gone horribly awry, as directed by Stanley Kubrick.)

Not to mention Jack White looks a lot like Dr. Frankfurter…

Anyway…

So “Blue Blood Blues” opens strongly enough, but all that momentum is lost on the following track, “Hustle & Cuss,” which I found to be repetitive and generally pretty boring.

“The Difference Between Us” revisits the blend of distortion rock, funk and blues that attracted me to The Dead Weather in the first place, then sets things up for what is easily the best song on the album, and arguably their song to date, “I’m Mad.”

The first minute is the perfect prelude to a fucking incredible bridge, which happens at roughly 1:40. If robotic clones of Marlene Shaw, Otis Rush, and the members of Slint collaborated at the 30th St. Studio, this is what it would sound like…just before the universe imploded from such a singularity of awesomeness.

Suck on that referencing, Pitchforkwits…

j.s.