Today, Jack White released the video for his new single "Lazaretto," the title track for his upcoming album, out on June 10th. Here are my initial impressions of the video after watching it just one time.
1. That must be a pretty heavy pick. (Guitar player humor, don't mind me...)
2. I thought Jack White would have stuck to his new blue palette as strictly as his White Stripes red/white/black palette, but since this video's black and white, I guess I was wrong.
3. Those holes in the glass make it look like we're visiting Jack White in prison, or at best, his job at an inner-city convenience store.
4. The riff keeps going even after he stops playing guitar. I'm pretty sure he's not playing for real. Sorry to burst everyone's bubble.
5. The overhead shots of the keyboard immediately remind me of the video for "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne, even though there are probably thousands of other videos that have used that same shot. Lil Jon's "Snap Yo Fingers" just came to mind too.
6. I wouldn't have expected Jack White to use a synthesizer in one of his songs, but I'm glad he did. Good for him for catching up to the early '70s.
7. All of the constantly shattering glass in this video reminds me of the apocalyptic ending to Don Hertzfeldt's Rejected. If you haven't seen it, please go to Youtube and watch it.
8. Oh great, there's a car driving around erratically. This is starting to look like one of those car commercials that a song like this would most definitely get licensed for. (Or if they couldn't get this song, they would license a Black Keys song instead.) Maybe this is Jack White's way of beating the ad agencies to the punch.
9. Guitar solos like the one in this song are why I think Jack White's great. I'm not really digging the rest of the song so much, though. It doesn't have the same noisy punch as an early White Stripes track.
10. I bet you Jack White has a Jack White tattoo on his chest. Dan Auerbach probably has one, too.
11. Is that a drag queen? I don't want to go around declaring things like that if it isn't true.
12. Yeah, that's probably a drag queen.
13. Jack White doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would use CGI or non-analog anything, so he may have blown his guitar apart for real at the end of this video. At the very least, he was wearing some sort of slim-fitting fire suit to protect himself.
What did you think of the video? Let us know in the comments section!
