Jack White is flake.<\/p>\n
First thing, Jack: I know you enjoy looking like a vampire, but you are not a vampire, OK? They don\u2019t exist \u2014 the fact you can appear in sunlight should be your first clue. And what about the party you threw to commemorate the divorce to your supermodel wife? Don\u2019t you have kids? Look, as a child of divorce I can tell you watching your parents split up is no time for a party. It sucks, actually, and not in some sort of vampire way.<\/p>\n
We won\u2019t get into the whole \u201cmy bandmate is my sister but really she used to be my wife\u201d \u2014 but suffice to say it\u2019s more than weird.<\/p>\n
So yes, Jack White has issues.<\/p>\n
But when the man writes a song, he is unparalleled \u2014 whether he\u2019s fronting The White Stripes, The Raconteurs or The Dead Weather, a trio of outfits with clear and defined visions. Now with Blunderbuss, the first album White has fronted as himself, this run of stellar work has continued and, to some extent, excelled. A revelation of rock, blues, pop and country, Blunderbuss showcases a supreme songwriter at the top of his game.<\/p>\n
As good as his previous work is, there\u2019s a sense White defers to the musicians around him, giving them space to create. But in Blunderbuss, White has full control, and opposed to other frontmen whose solo albums suffered without the input of their bandmates (I\u2019m looking at you Thom Yorke and Craig Finn), it\u2019s clear White\u2019s is the only opinion that ever mattered. After listening to \u201cSixteen Saltines\u201d this fact leaves the listener feeling a bit cheated \u2014 do you mean all White Stripes songs could have sounded this good? W.T.F.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not that White developed fancy new hooks or delved into unexplored genres \u2014 he\u2019s doing what he\u2019s always done, but in sharper turns. \u201cMissing Pieces\u201d opens with a playful electric organ before breaking into a lingering guitar familiar throughout White\u2019s catalog \u2013 and then the voice erupts with his odd and sometimes eerie sentiments \u201cI was in the shower so I could not tell my nose was bleeding.\u201d \u201cSixteen Saltines\u201d attacks from the outset \u2014 the grinding guitars that made Elephant such a stunning album are in full display \u2014 but the drums are spot on (sorry Meg), making this two and a half minutes of boisterous bliss.<\/p>\n
The moments he escapes from his past self showcase his maturity as a songwriter. \u201cLove Interruption\u201d has the minimalist vibe White craves, but uses instruments (Wurlizter, clarinet) not usually in his arsenal (plus he sings along with an unnamed female singer). \u201cHypocritical Kiss\u201d is dominated by a pounding piano unlike ever heard from him before \u2014 it\u2019s seems overtly grand on purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201cHip (Eponymous) Poor Boy\u201d is getting plenty of ink for its pointed lyrics toward Meg (And you\u2019ll be watching me girl\/Takin\u2019 over the world\/Let the stripes unfurl\/Gettin\u2019 rich Singin\u2019 \u2018poor boy, poor boy\u2019), but if you throw way the lyrics and listen to the music, it\u2019s downright happy in a jaunty \u201cI\u2019m a 6-year-old watching a circus\u201d way. Jack White does dour, but bubbly?<\/p>\n
I could go on, but it would be effusive. I\u2019ll say this: The album is dynamic but remains true to who and what JackWhite has created in his more than 15 years as a musician. He may not be the best person to hang around with (just ask Jason Stollsteimer), but he\u2019s worth listening to at any and all times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jack White is flake. First thing, Jack: I know you enjoy looking like a vampire, but you are not a vampire, OK? They don\u2019t exist \u2014 the fact you can appear in sunlight should be your first clue. And what about the party you threw to commemorate the divorce to your supermodel wife? Don\u2019t you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[478,410],"class_list":["post-1511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-blunderbuss","tag-jack-white"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1513,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions\/1513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}