Jack White - Blunderbuss (2012)

Track Listing

1. Missing Pieces (3:26)

2. Sixteen Saltines (2:36)

3. Freedom At 21 (2:52)

4. Love Interruption (2:38)

5. Blunderbuss (3:06)

6. Hypocritical Kiss (2:50)

7. Weep Themselves To Sleep (4:19)

8. I'm Shakin' (3:00)

9. Trash Tongue Talker (3:20)

10. Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy (3:03)

11. I Guess I Should Go To Sleep (2:37)

12. On And On And On (3:56)

13. Take Me With You When You Go (4:10)

Coming off a celebrated divorce and about four normal-sized careers worth of achievement, Jack White found himself in his Third Man Recording Studios in Nashville, TN stood up by RZA.  Being the inclined business man that he is, White seized the opportunity and the resources and did what he more or less has not stopped doing since his first act (the Detroit-garage-punk duo The Upholsterers) in 2000 started making glorious, in your face blues-based rock music: he began to record.

And let there be no mistake about it, he'd be going this round with guitar in hand.  Jack White's first ever solo album Blunderbuss is the cumulative result of this first session.  It starts with Missing Pieces a paced, up and down groove backed by organ.  There's some sharp lead guitar followed by a competitive reply on the keys in the bridge.  And if it hasn't been apparent by the lyrics thus far that he's addressing his divorce (with Third Man recording artist Karen Elson) in the opening track of this pun of a solo album, we hear some honest reflection in the final verse: 

Sometimes someone controls everything about you

And when they tell you that they just can’t live without you
They ain’t lyin', they’ll take pieces of you
And they’ll stand above you and walk away
That’s right and take a part of you with them

From there we're back in high school, listening to the likes of boy on girl crushes among stickered lockers in the second pre-album released single Sixteen Saltines.  Its simple and heavy riff has become the recognizable signature of the compilation.  Sounding like something off a later White Stripes album, it's all Jack as he inquires "Who's jealous who's jealous who's jealous of who".

Followed at number three on the tracklist is Feedom At 21 which might have the most engaging hook on the record, sure to have concertgoers' heads undulating to its rhythm.  Jack basically raps the lyrics - Bob Dylan would be proud - about a strong independent and possibly satanic woman of the 21st century.

White and Amanfu

Love Interruption, the first single released and the first hint at the time of what a Jack White solo album might encompass, is a simple, expressive and righteous diddy with backing vocals by a new player in the equation, Ruby Amanfu, a member of the female band he tours with.  Whereas in The Dead Weather Alison Mosshart's vocals were often eerily mistakable with Jack's, Amanfu has her own distinct echoing vibe that complements the hell out of what Jack has to say.  The woodwind, my guess an oboe, present with its repetitive sequence is a nice touch too, reminding us of the vast instrumentation on The White Stripe's 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan.

In Blunderbuss, the album-named track, Jack's vocals are featured more than anywhere else.  There's a delightful country morning sway of strings supporting his soft[er] croons.  In Hypocritical Kiss, more accusatory rhetoric at perhaps, a past lover, is accompanied with piano in the foreground and plenty of cymbal clashes.

That covers the first half of the album, which offers a completely different menu than the latter. Consisting of unforced and seemingly more intuitive passages, it's no wonder these were in the lineup's beginning, the only natural place for what one must proverbially remove off one's chest.  The second half of the album is about having fun and a heavy return to the Blues.  I'm Shakin' is pure conviviality, a goofing off tune with a noticeable mispronunciation of "nervous" as "noyvus".  What's great about White is that he gifts us with his guitar shredding even in songs like this.  Attendees of his live shows are even more so in his debt for this particular generosity.

Hip (Epononymous) Poor Boy is one of my favorite tracks on the album, and definitely the standout of the second half.  Light-hearted and playful its simultaneous self-deprecating lyrics betrayed by optimistic playing that seems to be saying "the tricks on you" can not help but uplift anyone within its reach.

The album concludes with some goodies like On And On And On, sounding like a manipulation of three or four Beatles songs in one and the last track Take Me With You When You Go, which relies on a mellifluous jazzy riff, with violins chiming in and out.  Halfway through it re-directs you to a funky rock sound with Jack backed by female vocals taking helm.  There's the given guitar input that every White fan expects and it makes for a satisfying close to the album.

Blunderbuss is a dichotomy in the same vein that all vinyls, the medium of audio White most promotes, come with two sides.  It is for every fan of Jack White's past projects, especially for those of The White Stripes who may have felt withdrawn from The Dead Weather given White's percussive role.  For the music fan who is not as familiar with daunting anthology of White, Blunderbuss is as good a place to start as any so long as you don't wait too long to start - for he's likely to come out with his next production by the time you hit the home stretch.

LISTEN: Blunderbuss on Spotify

WATCH: White Performing at Webster Hall - April 27, 2012