A lot has been made of Jack White’s private life recently. His divorce with Karen Elson and subsequent restraining order, his spat with The Black Keys and his former bandmate Meg White, and pretty much anything else that he deigns to do makes headlines around the music blogosphere. He says his new album is based on writing he did when he was 19, on characters he invented for one man plays. Already though there is speculation over whether the lyrics refer to more current events.

The opening track ‘Three Women’ ticks off the ‘sex’ element of the saying ‘sex, drugs, rock n roll’, as it refers to a character’s explicit relationship with multiple women. “I’ve got three women, red blonde and brunette”, has already been plugged as a possible reference to ex-wife and redhead Karen Elson, but more likely it is probably just a rock n roll track with rock n roll lyrics.

And that’s how the album starts, very up-beat, with a fast tempo and a rock groove. The title track ‘Lazaretto’ pops up next and again is all rock, in the same vein as Blunderbuss. There is an experimental fiddle solo thrown in there because, you know, it’s Jack White and nothing is ever straight up. From there on the album splits up into varying styles that include blues, country and folk. Lazaretto is more influenced by a desire to experiment than an exploration of a singular genre or style.

‘Temporary Ground’ is all country folk, with dreamy and soul-searching lyrics. It’s a slow and well-crafted song, with Ruby Amanfu’s backing vocals blending nicely with White’s. This is followed by the dark and emphatic ‘Would You Fight For My Love?’, which couldn’t be more different from the preceding song. It’s piano led and based around a simple and punchy chorus where White belts out the title line. It incorporates White’s unique style of spitting out lyrical verses with intensity. These vocals are also found on the later tracks ‘That Black Bat Licorice’ and ‘I Think I Found the Cuplrit’, where White delivers the line of the album with “birds of a feather may lay together, but the uglier one is always under the gun.”. Both these songs are more in keeping with the Blunderbuss style, and reveal White’s penchant for a good old rock riff.

The mother of all riff’s on this album though can be found on the instrumental ‘High Ball Stepper’, which was the first single to be released from the album. It’s all squealing guitars and heavy distortion and is definitely the ballsiest song on Lazaretto, with such an enormous sound.

The album loses a bit of momentum when it hits the more indulgent tracks ‘Alone In My Home’ and ‘Entitlement’. Both are slow and soulful songs, but feel a little weak. Especially ‘Entitlement’, which, although interesting enough in its arrangement, is essentially just a soft country rock track that lacks any of Jack White’s usual flair.

The album ends on a story, one of ‘Want and Able’. “Now Want and Able are two different things, one is desire and the other is the means.” Cryptic and eccentric, two elements found smattered throughout this album.

White is known for dabbling in different sounds, styles, ideas. He is an inventor, a designer, as much as he is a musician. This album is more than just a plain set of songs; they are the result of White building and crafting an album based on a spectrum of influences. For that reason it is brilliant. The only downside is at times he perhaps adds too many building blocks, and simplicity is left crying out for an appearance.