When certain artists drop a new single, we’re compelled to write about. Jack White is one of those artists. The Motor City Madman, who just rocked the East Coast with the announcement that he’ll be headlining the annual Governors Ball Music Festival in NYC, also dropped a new track for his group, The Dead Weather. So, we picked up the gauntlet and answered the challenge laid forth by Little Jackie White, to see if we truly would dig his latest effort.
http://youtu.be/3lYstaUzjHs
Lauren Stern: Most of the time I have nothing nice to say about Jack White or his projects outside of the White Stripes so I’m going to make this brief. This is the most annoying, dreadful song I’ve heard in a long time. Lead singer Alison Mosshart is essentially screaming really loudly throughout the whole song and I’m pretty sure the drum rhythm ignited a protruding headache that I’m going to have for the rest of the day. Case in point: I wouldn’t recommend this song to anyone, not even my worst enemy. Verdict: One and Done
Nick Porcaro: By any account I SHOULD love this song. It has all sorts of dynamic stop-start rhythmic shifts, pummeling guitar grime and hysterical vocals. The production is appropriately punchy and highlights the band’s tight-knit playing. It’s all fine and dandy, sure, but by the end I found this to be little more than yet another competent piece of backwards-looking hard rock homage. And isn’t that pretty much all Jack White is capable of, anyway? It’s about time we start idolizing rock stars who actually innovate. Verdict: one and done.
Kelly O’Dowd: Huh. I wasn’t expecting this to be boring. Thought that perhaps a female vocal on a Jack White band would add something different to the mix. But it didn’t. The song has the same plotting chords and words over and over again. As a single, it doesn’t stand out. It melts into the background, destined to be in some car commercial soundtrack later this year. When the White Stripes came out all those years ago, I was excited. Jack White was interesting, but since then he bores me.There’s nothing new here. Nothing exciting. No innovation. They don’t “Open up,” and to that I say “That’s Enough.” Verdict: One and Done
Jason Stives: The Dead Weather are a group like any other act associated with Jack White that you are never sure if they will return. Over the past year we have seen both this super group and the Raconteurs make semi reappearances in the public eye but never fully. With “Open Up (That’s Enough)” we have definitive proof that there is life after 2 records for a post-Stripes Jack White project. The first in a series of singles to be released leading into 2015, when assumingly a full record will emerge, it’s a song that should be devoid of the comeback single terminology. Actually, that terms should be tossed aside in general as you can’t really account something as a comeback single when the band had no failings they just individually had other projects of importance.
Like a bunch of traveling vagrants the band reemerges with this frightening and punctual track that swings into action with Alison Mosshart’s trembling scream. It’s definitely a rather reserved track considering the lo-fi sometimes brooding tracks that encompassed their first two records and has the skeleton of a White Stripes song if anything. Is that a good thing? It has my interest but only until the next two songs comes out. The B-side “Rough Detective” offers something more in line with their level of experimentation. The trouble here is its level of repetition extends to both the composition and the lyrics which is fine if done well but here it’s almost four minutes that needs a more heavy hand and breath than it is given.
It’s probably best that it’s not associated with an album just yet because it doesn’t necessarily scream the attention it tries to muster or that the band deserves. It’s rather simple but it doesn’t sound like something the band would usually do. At the moment I’d much rather a new Raconteurs record than a Dead Weather record but only time will tell. Verdict: One and Done
Matt Agosta: To me this song sounded really generic. Nothing about the record caught my attention or got me engaged in anyway. I felt like the song was on loop sometimes but that could have been me not paying too much attention since it never caught my attention. Not a big fan of the vocals or the structure of the song because again, it sounded like I heard a song like this hundreds of times. I wouldn’t say the song is bad because it never made me cringe like a One Direction song, but I wouldn’t say it was good either.
Verdict: One and Done
Bill Bodkin: Seriously? Am I the only person who likes this song? While The Dead Weather make rank a distant fourth amongst Jack White’s projects, I still thought this was a really, really solid track. Someone already said this, but “Open Up (That’s Enough)” plays better as an album cut than a single, but the energy and fury contained within the track makes me want to hear more from The Dead Weather. So, mission accomplished then? Either way, I dig this song. Verdict: Add to Playlist.
Final Verdict: An overwhelming majority do not like this song, in fact some very strong opposition to it. So, we cannot recommend you adding this song to your playlist.
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