Jack White | ||
| Allmusic Biography : One of the most admired guitarists of the early 21st century, Jack White helped restore the popularity of punk-blues as the frontman of the White Stripes. Meanwhile, he widened his reach by participating in a range of other projects, including the Raconteurs, the Cold Mountain soundtrack, Loretta Lynns comeback vehicle Van Lear Rose, the Dead Weather, and a solo career. Although Whites nasal voice and loose, fiery guitar delivery were mainstays of the White Stripes early work, the group branched out as its reputation grew, building upon an initially minimalist sound with elements of metal, backwoods country, pop, and early rock & roll. White followed a similar evolution in his own career, and by the time the White Stripes celebrated the tenth anniversary of their debut album, the frontman had already issued two pop-oriented records with the Raconteurs, starred in several films, collaborated with Electric Six, duetted with Alicia Keys, and produced records for a number of artists. John Anthony Gillis was born in Detroit on July 9, 1975. The youngest of ten siblings, he began playing drums at an early age and took inspiration from the world-weary blues of Son House and Blind Willie McTell. A fascination with guitar followed in his teenage years. After launching his own upholstery business in Detroit, White began to infiltrate the citys music scene as the drummer for Goober & the Peas, a local cowpunk band that split in 1995. While continuing to play drums for other groups, he crossed paths with a bartender named Meg White, and the two were married in 1996. Jack took Megs surname, and the pair formed the White Stripes after a Bastille Day jam session showed promising results. With their color-coded image and raw, punky sound, the White Stripes became a key component of the garage rock revival of the late 90s. In addition to their music, the bandmembers stirred public interest by claiming to be siblings, a declaration that seemed slightly less incestuous when Jack and Meg White divorced in 2000. Despite the split, the White Stripes only grew in popularity as the decade progressed, eventually winning three consecutive Grammy Awards and issuing several platinum-certified albums. Following the release of Elephant in 2003, Jack White took a break from the group to produce Loretta Lynns Van Lear Rose. A critical smash, the album helped endear Lynn to a new generation of fans, thanks in part to Whites credibility as a rock artist. He then returned to the White Stripes for the release of Get Behind Me Satan, which saw him expanding his instrumental range with piano and marimba. Shortly thereafter, he launched a concurrent group, the Raconteurs, with friend Brendan Benson and two members of the Greenhornes (who, incidentally, had served as backing musicians on Van Lear Rose). The Raconteurs made their debut with 2006s Broken Boy Soldiers and toured in support of the album, while White publicly stressed that his work in the band should not be seen as a side project or a diversion from the White Stripes. Thus, he began juggling his responsibilities to both groups, partnering with Meg White once again for the White Stripes 2007 release Icky Thump, before returning to the Raconteurs for 2008s Consolers of the Lonely. While touring in support of the latter album, White suffered from bronchitis and often lost his voice, prompting singer Alison Mosshart (from the Raconteurs touring partners the Kills) to climb on-stage and contribute her own vocals. The chemistry between Mosshart and the Raconteurs proved alluring, and the musicians opted to form a separate group named the Dead Weather. With Jack White now handling drums, the band retreated to the studio and recorded an energetic debut, Horehound, in a matter of weeks. Released in 2009, the album was well-received on both sides of the Atlantic, cracking the Top Ten in America and peaking at number 14 in the U.K. Encouraged by such success, the Dead Weather began working on a second album during the fall, with the intention of previewing several new songs during an Australian tour in early 2010. In the meantime, White secured enough free time to appear in a movie -- the guitar-themed It Might Get Loud -- and produce an album for his wife, songwriter Karen Elson. The first solo outing from White, the bluesy, typically idiosyncratic Blunderbuss, named for a muzzle-loading firearm that was a precursor of the shotgun, arrived on April 24, 2012. It promptly debuted in the American charts at number one, the first White-associated album to do so. Blunderbuss also earned several Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, and Best Rock Song for "Freedom at 21." Whites second solo album, Lazaretto, followed in June 2014, preceded by the single "High Ball Stepper." It debuted at number one on the pop charts and earned positive reviews. The Dead Weather released their third album, Dodge and Burn, in September of 2015, and a year later White released Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016, a double-disc compilation of acoustic numbers from his various projects. In April 2017, he dropped a surprise instrumental single called "Battle Cry." A lifelong baseball fan, it was announced that the song would be used as the walk-up music for Detroit Tigers infielder Ian Kinsler, with whom White co-owns the baseball bat company Warstic. In March 2018, the strange, sprawling Boarding House Reach was released, peaking at number one on the Billboard 200. The following year, he was back with the Raconteurs for the groups third album, Help Us Stranger. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 9 Title: Blunderbuss Released: 2012-04-20 Tracks: 13 Duration: 41:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Missing Pieces (03:27) 2 Sixteen Saltines (02:37) 3 Freedom at 21 (02:51) 4 Love Interruption (02:37) 5 Blunderbuss (03:06) 6 Hypocritical Kiss (02:50) 7 Weep Themselves to Sleep (04:19) 8 I’m Shakin’ (03:00) 9 Trash Tongue Talker (03:20) 10 Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy (03:03) 11 I Guess I Should Go to Sleep (02:37) 12 On and On and On (03:55) 13 Take Me With You When You Go (04:10) |
| Blunderbuss : Allmusic album Review : Jack White leaves such an indelible stamp on any project he touches that a solo album from him almost seems unnecessary: nobody has ever told him what to do. Hes a rock & roll auteur, bending other artists to fit his will, leading bands even when hes purportedly no more than a drummer, always enjoying dictating the fashion by placing restrictions on himself. And so it is on Blunderbuss, his first official solo album, arriving five years after the White Stripes last but seeming much sooner given Whites constant flurry of activity with the Raconteurs, Dead Weather, Third Man Records, and countless productions. Here, hes once again placed restrictions on himself but theyre not quite as clearly defined as theyve been in the past, as when hes gotten great dividends by working with a limited palette. All the restrictions are entirely of a comforting variety: hes abandoned the primitivism of the White Stripes, something that came easily with Meg White bashing away on the drums, and has chosen a quieter, polished route, rotating in different musicians for different tracks. Jack still pulls out some standards from his bag of tricks -- clenched blues explosions, squealing guitars, and a cool breeze of electric piano -- but musicians matter and this bunch of pro players tightens and softens his attack (sometimes to its detriment, as on a clumsy cabaret version of Little Willie Johns "Im Shakin"). When Blunderbuss gets furious, its hard not to miss the chaos Meg brought to the Stripes -- with her at the drums, "Sixteen Saltines" would fly off the rails -- but its a mistake to think of this album as a professionally produced White Stripes record as it relies as heavily on ideas White explored on his handful of old-timey acoustic cuts and the 70s guitar rock of the Raconteurs. If it resembles any Stripes album its Get Behind Me Satan, the dark, odd 2005 set written in the wake of a breakup and filled with songs of paranoia and recrimination. This too is a divorce album with every song concerning love gone wrong, yet its easy to ignore all the pain roiling underneath because Blunderbuss plays so sweetly, its melodies easing into memory and its surface warm and pleasant. Contradictions are nothing new for Jack White but hes never been as emotionally direct as he is here, nor has he been as musically evasive, and that dichotomy makes Blunderbuss a record that only seems richer with increased exposure. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 9 Title: iTunes Festival: London 2012 Released: 2012-10-09 Tracks: 6 Duration: 18:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Sixteen Saltines (02:45) 2 Freedom at 21 (02:54) 3 Hypocritical Kiss (02:38) 4 Take Me With You When You Go (03:58) 5 Broken Boy Soldier (02:52) 6 Two Against One (03:45) |
 | Album: 3 of 9 Title: Live at Third Man Records Released: 2012-12 Tracks: 19 Duration: 00:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (?) 2 Missing Pieces (?) 3 Sixteen Saltines (?) 4 Love Interruption (?) 5 Hotel Yorba (?) 6 Top Yourself (?) 7 Hypocritical Kiss (?) 8 Youre Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl) (?) 9 Blue Blood Blues (?) 10 We Are Going to Be Friends (?) 1 My Doorbell (?) 2 Freedom at 21 (?) 3 I Cut Like a Buffalo / Dont Sweat the Technique (?) 4 You Know That I Know (?) 5 Weep Themselves to Sleep (?) 6 Ball & Biscuit (?) 7 Steady, as She Goes (?) 8 Seven Nation Army (?) 9 Goodnight Irene (?) |
 | Album: 4 of 9 Title: Lazaretto Released: 2014-06-06 Tracks: 11 Duration: 39:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Three Women (03:57) 2 Lazaretto (03:39) 3 Temporary Ground (03:13) 4 Would You Fight for My Love? (04:09) 5 High Ball Stepper (03:53) 6 Just One Drink (02:36) 7 Alone in My Home (03:27) 8 Entitlement (04:07) 9 That Black Bat Licorice (03:50) 10 I Think I Found the Culprit (03:49) 11 Want and Able (02:34) |
| Lazaretto : Allmusic album Review : Like "blunderbuss," a "lazaretto" is an ancient reference that means little in the modern world, a fact that does not escape Jack White, a musician who specializes in blurring lines between past and present. Contrary to his carefully cultivated persona as a raider of lost Americana, White never, ever was a purist: he thrived upon seizing the precise moment when accepted definitions lose all meanings and turn into something new. This tension surfaces on Lazaretto, his second solo album, a record that lives upon the edges of his interests. There is a fair share of blues bluster -- via Zeppelin riffs and huffed references to digital cameras, the opener "Three Women" modernizes Blind Willie McTell, while he twists a refrain from Howlin Wolfs "I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)" on "Just One Drink" -- but Lillie Mae Risches violin occupies nearly as much space as his own howling guitars, pushing White into the left field where he prefers to reside. That eccentricity is the pleasure of Lazaretto, which is by every measure the strangest record associated with White since 2005s Get Behind Me Satan, a record that found Jack tackling the aftermath of fame by turning gothic. Hes since lightened his outlook -- all the restored recording booths and trickster vinyl coming out of Third Man Records in Nashville show the heart of a prankster -- but he retains the itch of an artist, thriving upon self-imposed limitations. With Lazaretto, that amounted to adapting a clutch of fiction he wrote when he was 19, using the themes of these stories and plays to not only fuel the topics, but to freshen his songwriting, which was veering ever so slightly toward craftsmanship on Blunderbuss. Here, White kicks the legs out from under himself, allowing himself some signature indulgences -- the aforementioned blues blazers, plus the unhinged "That Black Bat Licorice" -- and reviving a few forgotten sounds (the closing piano ballad "Want and Able" recalls the moody turns of Satan), but generally he pounces upon detours, savoring the instrumental of "High Ball Stepper," demonstrating a facility with hip-hop rhythms and cadence on "Lazaretto," and lingering in dark corners for perhaps a little longer than necessary. All this sound and fury disguises how elsewhere on Lazaretto there are songs as exquisitely sculpted as those on Blunderbuss -- the heartbroken honky tonk of "Temporary Ground," the deceptively sprightly "Alone in My Home," the teasing melodrama of "Would You Fight for My Love?" -- but what makes it a better, richer work is how it simultaneously holds every side of White, existing at the crossroads where modernity, tradition, hard work, and inspiration all meet. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 9 Title: Live From Bonnaroo 2014 Released: 2014-12 Tracks: 27 Duration: 2:13:16 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Icky Thump (07:41) 2 High Ball Stepper (06:05) 3 Lazaretto (04:30) 4 Hotel Yorba (04:02) 5 Temporary Ground (04:01) 6 Missing Pieces (05:22) 7 Steady, as She Goes (07:12) 8 Top Yourself (05:55) 1 Im Slowly Turning Into You (11:00) 2 Freedom at 21 (03:08) 3 Three Women (04:07) 4 You Dont Know What Love Is (You Just Do as Youre Told) (04:12) 5 Were Going to Be Friends (10:45) 6 Alone in My Home (03:44) 7 Ball and Biscuit (06:11) 8 The Lemon Song (02:37) 1 The Hardest Button to Button (05:34) 2 Hello Operator (02:46) 3 Pipeline (01:12) 4 Misirlou (01:30) 5 Sixteen Saltines (02:51) 6 Cannon (02:51) 7 Blue Blood Blues (01:31) 8 Astro (01:52) 9 Love Interruption (07:17) 10 Little Bird (04:43) 11 Seven Nation Army (10:37) |
 | Album: 6 of 9 Title: Acoustic Tour 2015 Released: 2016-06 Tracks: 16 Duration: 00:00 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Just One Drink (?) 2 Temporary Ground (?) 3 Alone in My Home (?) 4 Love Interruption (?) 5 Hotel Yorba (?) 6 You Know That I Know (?) 7 Do (?) 8 Sugar Never Tasted So Good (?) 9 Inaccessible Mystery (?) 1 Were Going to Be Friends (?) 2 Blunderbuss (?) 3 A Martyr for My Love for You (?) 4 Carolina Drama (?) 5 Youve Got Her in Your Pocket (?) 6 The Same Boy Youve Always Known (?) 7 Goodnight, Irene (?) |
 | Album: 7 of 9 Title: Acoustic Recordings 1998–2016 Released: 2016-09-09 Tracks: 26 Duration: 1:25:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Sugar Never Tasted So Good (02:54) 2 Apple Blossom (remixed) (02:14) 3 I’m Bound to Pack It Up (remixed) (03:09) 4 Hotel Yorba (02:10) 5 We’re Going to Be Friends (02:22) 6 You’ve Got Her in Your Pocket (03:40) 7 Well It’s True That We Love One Another (02:43) 8 Never Far Away (03:39) 9 Forever for Her (Is Over for Me) (03:15) 10 White Moon (04:01) 11 As Ugly as I Seem (04:10) 12 City Lights (04:51) 13 Honey, We Can’t Afford to Look This Cheap (03:56) 14 Effect and Cause (03:00) 1 Love Is the Truth (acoustic mix) (01:39) 2 Top Yourself (bluegrass version) (04:37) 3 Carolina Drama (acoustic mix) (05:53) 4 Love Interruption (02:37) 5 On and On and On (03:55) 6 Machine Gun Silhouette (acoustic mix) (03:01) 7 Blunderbuss (03:06) 8 Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy (alternate mix) (03:03) 9 I Guess I Should Go to Sleep (alternate mix) (02:37) 10 Just One Drink (acoustic mix) (02:33) 11 Entitlement (04:07) 12 Want and Able (02:34) |
| Acoustic Recordings 1998–2016 : Allmusic album Review : Natural-born archivist that he is, it is no surprise that Jack White would eventually choose to curate his own career. Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016 is his first attempt at offering an alternative narrative of his own career, one that places his quieter side as the connecting thread running from the White Stripes through the Raconteurs to his solo work. Its a tactic that diminishes some of the conventional notions about White, particularly that most of his music is grounded in the blues. Despite Greil Marcus mention of blues icon Son House in the liner notes, most of the music on Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016 bears stronger ties to country and folk, even British Invasion pop; the latter is evident not only on the singsong whimsy of "Were Going to Be Friends" but the cinematic melancholy of "Forever for Her (Is Over for Me)." Neither version here is heard in an alternate version, underscoring how this spin on Whites work isnt revisionist, it highlights what was already there, yet there are rarities scattered throughout the collection: remixes of the early Stripes tracks "Apple Blossom" and "Im Bound to Pack It Up," alternate acoustic mixes of solo material from the 2010s, bluegrass versions of "Top Yourself" and "Carolina Drama," a song from the Raconteurs. What first grabs the attention are assorted White Stripes rarities -- the wry, funny Beck-produced B-side "Honey, We Cant Afford to Look This Cheap," the recently completed outtake "City Lights" -- and a stripped-down revision of "Love Is the Truth," a song White wrote for Coca-Cola in 2006, but what impresses is the consistency. Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016 not only is a strong set of songs but it makes it plain that White has been mining the same territory, finding something new within it for nearly two decades. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 9 Title: Boarding House Reach Released: 2018-03-23 Tracks: 13 Duration: 44:10 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Connected by Love (04:38) 2 Why Walk a Dog? (02:29) 3 Corporation (05:39) 4 Abulia and Akrasia (01:28) 5 Hypermisophoniac (03:35) 6 Ice Station Zebra (03:59) 7 Over and Over and Over (03:36) 8 Everything You’ve Ever Learned (02:13) 9 Respect Commander (04:33) 10 Ezmerelda Steals the Show (01:43) 11 Get in the Mind Shaft (04:13) 12 What’s Done Is Done (02:55) 13 Humoresque (03:09) |
| Boarding House Reach : Allmusic album Review : Due to his affection for prewar music and myths, Jack White often gets pigeonholed as a blues-rock revivalist -- an assessment that isnt so much wrong as it is incomplete. Even in the earliest days of the White Stripes, White limited his aural palette with deliberate zeal, a practice he sustained through the Stripes as well as his first two solo albums. Boarding House Reach is where he expands his horizons and that discipline begins to fracture, and quite intentionally so. "Connected by Love" -- the albums opening track and first single -- is a rousing bit of arena rock and the only cut that could truly have appeared on either Blunderbuss or Lazaretto. Once that song draws to a close, White dives into a moody electronic meditation called "Why Walk a Dog?" -- an oddity thats quickly eclipsed by the hard funk of "Corporation," a song that marks the third different sound in as many tracks. Things get progressively stranger from this point forward. Recitations commingle with raps, gurgling synthesizers tangle with blues piano, operatic overdubs are paired with fuzz guitars, sci-fi send-ups meet their match with short stories. Every moment suggests that White is kicking against the pricks, desperate to be seen as a modern rock artist, not a fusty throwback. While his attempt at redefinition is a success -- theres no question that this is the work of an artist willing to take risks -- its an open question whether Boarding House Reach succeeds as an album. Its diffuse nature is enthralling, but it also means that the record has a halting momentum -- a perhaps inevitable byproduct of a musician eager to drive himself into the ditch. Another odd element of Boarding House Reach is how, despite his thirst to get weird, White is by nature a very regimented artist who has a desire to have everything in its right place. "Corporation" and "Ice Station Zebra," the two funkiest numbers here, illustrate this with their precise grooves, but even the self-consciously weird interludes show this same level of exactitude. While that keeps Boarding House Reach somewhat in a straitjacket, it also makes it a fascinating listen, because its a document of a control freak anxious to get loose. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 9 Title: Live at Third Man Records ||| Nashville & Cass Corridor Released: 2018-09 Tracks: 29 Duration: 1:54:52 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Battle Cry (02:49) 2 Over and Over and Over (03:33) 3 Wasting My Time (03:17) 4 Corporation (05:45) 5 Why Walk a Dog? (02:54) 6 Connected by Love (05:31) 7 Hello Operator (02:42) 8 Fell in Love With a Girl (02:28) 9 Blunderbuss (04:11) 10 Catch Hell Blues (04:32) 1 Little Bird (04:02) 2 Missing Pieces (06:07) 3 Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (04:59) 4 Ice Station Zebra (03:53) 5 Hypermisophoniac (03:08) 6 Im Slowly Turning Into You (04:32) 7 Respect Commander (04:33) 8 Sixteen Saltines (02:52) 9 Seven Nation Army (04:39) 1 [untitled] (01:12) 2 Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (04:01) 3 Over and Over and Over (03:53) 4 Why Walk a Dog? (02:31) 5 Corporation (06:20) 6 Love Interruption (02:56) 7 Blunderbuss (04:01) 8 Lazaretto (04:15) 9 Little Bird (02:53) 10 Catch Hell Blues (06:23) |