eleven.

Jack White

Blunderbuss
I was really disappointed when I got this, but over time it’s steadily grown on me.  The trick is to think of it as something else again: this isn’t The White Stripes or The Raconteurs or The Dead Weather.  It’s not even the sort of album that I would expect the Jack White involved in those bands to release as his first solo album.  This is a quirky bluesy journey through styles and sounds that White simply couldn’t crowbar in to any of his other projects.  It’s quaint.  Even twee.  In a good way.  The distinctive out of time Hammond organ on ‘Missing Pieces’, the alt-folk of title track ‘Blunderbuss’, the redneck-funk of ‘I’m Shakin’’: there’s loads to get to grips with here.  There are still moments of White Stripe-ry, perhaps unsurprisingly: that unmistakable guitar sound hits hard on the second track, ‘Sixteen Saltines’, for example.  Overall, though, I prefer the stuff that moves further away from his usual template (though at first I wasn’t keen).  The tracks here are consistently good, as you’d expect given who’s at the helm, though I still think he’s capable of more.  The next solo album may be a little more coherent, which is probably what this is missing.  Great stuff, nonetheless.