''Sea of Cowards'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

the Dead Weather The Dead Weather is an American rock supergroup, formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 2009. Composed of Alison Mosshart (of The Kills and Discount), Jack White (of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs), Dean Fertita (of Queens of the Stone Age) an ...

. It was first released on May 7 in Ireland, then on May 11, 2010, in the U.S. and May 10 in the United Kingdom. The album was streamed on the band's website, via continuous vinyl playback, for a period of 24 hours from April 30 to May 1. It was subsequently available for streaming on various media streaming websites such as

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

and

KCRW KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programm ...

. The album was rated number 11 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''s list of the 30 Best Albums of 2010.The 30 Best Albums of 2010
. ''Rolling Stone'' (December 25, 2010). Retrieved (January 18, 2011)]

Background and release

In 2009, the group worked on 15 songs over three days at White's Nashville studio,

Third Man Records Third Man Records is an eclectic, vinyl-focused independent record label founded and owned by Jack White, Ben Blackwell and Ben Swank. The company operates out of three locations—Nashville, Tennessee, Detroit, Michigan, and Soho, London—with ...

.Nagy, Evie (May 15, 2010), "Sea of Cowards." ''Billboard''. 122 (19):32 They reconvened at the studio in December, and recorded the album in three weeks. The vinyl LP version was pressed at

United Record Pressing United Record Pressing (founded as Southern Plastics) is a vinyl pressing plant located in Nashville, Tennessee, that has been in operation since 1949. United has pressed records for such artists as The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Ja ...

in Nashville, Tennessee. On May 3, before the album's release, the band played a special show at White's Third Man Records where ''Sea Of Cowards'' was played in its entirety. The show was streamed on MySpace and subsequently appeared on the band's YouTube channel. The performance was released on 12" vinyl through the Third Man Records' Vault subscription service, recorded live to analog tape and pressed directly to vinyl. This is in contrast to the controversial mastering process of the original album.

Composition

According to ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' magazine, "the grinding blues that drives tracks like 'Hustle and Cuss' and 'Gasoline' take the Dead Weather to a new level of intensity."

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periodical '' mX'' identified the song as "a grimy road trip through voodoo blues,

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...

and even

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

Reception

Critical

''Sea of Cowards'' received generally favorable reviews, ratings with

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

rating of "70." Giving the album a B+, ''Entertainment Weekly'' said it was "35 minutes of furious guitar solos and demonic howls." ''Spin'' magazine gave the work eight out of ten stars, and said that Mosshart and White "harness this icy alpha-dog tension into a distorted call-and-response aggression that's now greater than its parts, a rudely heavy swath of rock'n'roll authority." Pitchfork rated ''Sea of Cowards'' at 7.8 (out of ten), noting that "it's a heavy, snarly, physical rock album, and it feels like the work of people so secure in their ass-kicking abilities that they don't have to sweat the details." Blare magazine remarked that the album "combines the group’s sinister attitude with dreary funk and sex appeal."

Commercial

The album debuted on ''Billboard'' 200 at No. 5, and No. 3 on Top Rock Albums. It has sold 171,000 copies in the US as of September 2015.

Track listing

On CD versions, there is a 36 second instrumental pre-gap track hidden before "Blue Blood Blues". There are also two additional "bonus" songs pressed on the label of ''Sea of Cowards'' vinyl.

Personnel

Alison Mosshart Alison Nicole Mosshart (born November 23, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, artist, and the lead vocalist for the rock bands The Kills and The Dead Weather. She started her musical career in 1995 with the Florida punk rock band Discoun ...

: lead vocals, maracas, rhythm guitar, synthesizer *

Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...

: drums, vocals, guitar *

Dean Fertita Dean Anthony Fertita (born September 6, 1970) is an American rock multi-instrumentalist.Brian McColluMetro Detroit musician Dean Fertita moves to the front lines with the Dead Weatherfreep.com Retrieved: 2009-07-25 He is best known as a member of ...

: lead guitar, organ, piano, synthesizer * Jack Lawrence: bass, drums

Appearances in the media

The album's opening song, " Blue Blood Blues", was featured in the final episode of

Season Two Season 2 may refer to: * ''Season 2'' (Infinite album) * ''2econd Season ''2econd Season'' is the second and most recent album by Atlanta-based rapper Unk. Release It was released on November 4, 2008. Guest Performers The album features gu ...

of the

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comedy ''

Eastbound & Down ''Eastbound & Down'' is an American sports comedy television series that was broadcast on HBO, and created by Ben Best, Jody Hill, and Danny McBride. It stars McBride as Kenny Powers, a former professional baseball pitcher who, after a career d ...

'' in 2010. The album's song "I Can't Hear You" was featured in the movie

Crazy, Stupid, Love ''Crazy, Stupid, Love'' is a 2011 American romantic comedy film directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, written by Dan Fogelman and starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon. It follows a re ...

and is a playable song in the guitar-themed video game

Rocksmith ''Rocksmith'' is a music video game produced by Ubisoft, released in October 2011 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms in North America. ''Rocksmith'' was released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 during September 2012 in Australian and Europ ...

. It also played over the 2019

Giorgio Armani Giorgio Armani (; born 11 July 1934) is an Italian fashion designer. He first gained notoriety working for Cerruti and then for many others, including Allegri, Bagutta and Hilton. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, which eventually expande ...

Acqua di Giò Absolu Instinct men’s fragrance ad.

Charts

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 2010 albums The Dead Weather albums Warner Records albums Albums produced by Jack White Third Man Records albums