Jack White interview

Excellent interview:

Part 1:

Part 2:

BLUNDERBUSS

I've been listening to this one for more than a week now. Weirdly, not because it hit home with me, but quite the contrary. I didn't know what to make of it, so I had listened and listened, hoping some sort of overall feel might come forth eventually. Admittedly, musically speaking I've been in an eerie zone lately, what with all the classical stuff pouring into my ears and the desperate need for calm and silence. So, yeah, "Blunderbuss" came as a bit of a cold shower and a nail on the glass when compared to, say, Satie's piano. Which is, of course, an unfair juxtaposition, apples and pears. So I gave it one final, hopefully objective listen before opening the gap in my face commonly known as mouth.

So we're talking about Jack and his first solo album. I needed a starting point, so I tried to triangulate: The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. Ok, so it sounds nothing like The White Stripes, that much is obvious. "I'm shakin'" comes as close to the Stripes as this album will ever get. But it does contain traces of the other two bands. For example, I could easily see the song "Blunderbass" on a Raconteurs album, or "Sixteen Saltines" on a Dead Weather album. Right? I'm not just imagining it, yeah? That's fair enough, though, Jack's mind being behind all of these projects, it's only natural that some familiar sounds would leak through this project as well. And we love those sounds anyway.

One thing I did expect, to be honest, were more guitar-driven songs. I was looking forward to some brain-melting solos, and there are a few, but no "Blue Veins" here, I'm afraid. But there's lots of piano, hardly a song without it. All the songs are well-crafted, carefully structured and arranged....well, what did you expect, really? It's quite redundant to point that out in Jack's case, isn't it? The man can write a song.

As far as the lyrics go, from what I've been able to gather (haven't looked them up on the internet), it's mostly about relationships gone awry, the battle between sexes, stories / confessions , sometimes appologies and regrets, sometimes cusses and bile. It's autobiographical without a doubt, his break up with band-mate Meg and then with his wife, Karen, must have left him with some internal inquiries, as these things usually tend to do. And sometimes the songs sound like an autopsy (quite literally in "Missing Pieces"), and sometimes like a brief glance through the mirror and into the past.

All in all, this album certainly grows on you, even if your expectations were somewhat different, "rockier" perhaps, as mine were. The rock is there, the blues is there, but there's also a streak of childish insanity, the kid who wants to break stuff and pour gasoline on everybody's favorite cats.

Jack White - Freedom at 21


Jack White - Weep Themselves to Sleep

SIXTEEN SALTINES

I'll be there on June 21st, Brixton Academy.

JACK...

Like I've said before, I found this song to be the only one worthy of some attention on the Rome album. It seems that the band agrees with me, they made a video for it:

ROME

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Two Against One (feat Jack White)

Seems to be the year of some unexpected, yet tasty musical cocktails. After Nick Cave pairing with UNKLE, here's another shot for you, a mixture of random ingredients that will not give you headache, thank god.

Gnarls Barkley's Danger Mouse teams up with Italian film composer Daniele Luppi for the project Rome. 

Aaaand, they've got guests: Norah Jones and Jack White on vocals. 

After listening to it three or four times, I get this feeling that this little album has been somehow "photoshoped". Yeah, check this out: you take one layer, duplicate it, apply Gaussian Blur (say 56%), maybe some Levels then, and then you Overlay it, over the first one. You'll get this soft appearance, this glow all over the image, it's like the dream or flashback sequence in a very romantic and very dramatic flick on Hallmark, Sunday around supper.

Ladies swoon, I'm telling you. 

There's this velvety feel all over this album, but maybe's just me. I don't mind it, by the way. It's nice. 

It's mostly instrumental (6 out of 15 tracks have vocals). The instrumental parts..I wasn't very impressed. They do sound like a film score, but I fail to see the film. Kind of simple, kind of slurred at times. Fine, all in all, but I've heard better (Mancini? Barry?). And, I am aware that I'm dropping this particular name way too much, but when you've heard what Patton can do with a soundtrack, it's kind of hard to go back to Clayderman, you know. I don't mean they should all be frantic and dyslexic, but a little aim and purpose to it doesn't hurt.

The ones with vocals. 

Now, I've really tried to like Norah, to find something special in her. It was really hard and I gave up eventually. She sounds like a jaded Stina Nordenstam. And I can barely stand Stina most of the times. Nothing against them personally, but I do enjoy people with blood in their veins more than the ones without it.

Girls singing in their heads in front of closed windows on a dreamy rainy day aren't really my thing. A statement which, again, says absolutely nothing about them personally, okay? Just ain't my thing, is all. 

Norah's songs on this album are three pop songs which stir nothing, disturb no one...they sound like a flowery wallpaper to me. 

Jack's songs. 

"The World" sounds like a song dragging its feet out of the womb, quite reluctant to get born. The lyrics should be "do I really have to?" No, it's fine, stay there till you get divine.

"The Rose With The Broken Neck", also slow, but more fairytale-like, you can feel the story behind it. But, like all the others, nothing much happens in this song musically. There's no change of rhythm, no surprise, the verses and chorus just repeat till the end and that's it. A perfect lullaby, even for grown-ups.

Now "Two Against One" on the other hand sounds like something. This is Jack's hand. No wonder it's a single. This could have easily been a Raconteurs song, a good second track to heal the hurts of "Steady As She Goes" for instance. Lately I have become more aware of backing vocals in songs and the ones here, minimal as they are, pull it of so nicely. Oooneeee. 

So it's a nice little album. It's not life changing, but it's not a miss either. It's a start, I guess. Maybe, out of so many names (well, four), they found it hard to pick just one direction, one vector for the whole thing, one bold arrow, bull's eye baby. They're sprinkling rosy petals more than shooting arrows, but we need flowers too, don't we?

Thanks for the tip, M.

IT MIGHT GET LOUD

I mean...shit, what more do you want?