So, I just listened to Jack White's April 24th release, Blunderbuss. And by "just listened", I mean I'm currently still listening to it for about the 9th time, so I figured I should probably write something up for it. For those who don't know me well, Jack White is easily one of my favorite artists. I go from Raconteurs, to the White Stripes, to the Dead Weather and the Upholsterers and back again, usually on a daily basis. His vocal and (duh) especially his guitar stylings usually have me entranced.
I'm used to the Jack White who can make a shiver run up my spine with a simple chord progression, not the one who makes me think "but... why?"
It's difficult for me to say it, and I couldn't really admit it to myself at first, but Blunderbuss is kind of a bust for me. I mean, there's the obvious bits of amazing dashed throughout the album (Freedom at 21 has a pretty wicked guitar solo, and the title track is an awesome throwback to the days of De Stijl), but there were also a lot of moments where all I could think was how it sounded fake, and not at all like the Jack White I've grown to love. It almost came off as... Plastic, I suppose, in some areas.
That being said, the good outweighs the bad enough that I can say you should probably give it a listen. Jack's still in there, he just seems a little different. I'm still going to skip some of the songs, though.
