Lazaretto by Jack White

Lazaretto, Jack White's second solo album, came out in June 2014 on his own Third Man Records, in league with XL and Columbia, and White produced it himself. Part of the spark came from a stash of short stories, poems and plays he had written at 19 and later dug out of his attic, and there's a restless, twitchy energy all over it: blues rock wound tight and then yanked sideways, the former White Stripes frontman's guitar squealing and snapping through the title track and "High Ball Stepper", while "Would You Fight for My Love?" and "Alone in My Home" give the songs room to breathe.

The vinyl was a stunt and a statement at once: the "Ultra" LP hid extra songs, secret grooves and holograms that appear as the record spins. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 138,000 copies in its first week, the biggest first week for a vinyl album since 1991, a mark it held until 2021.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.