“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 Missing Pieces
Jack has been one of my favourite musicians for a long time. The first time I ever heard him was when The White Stripes released White Blood Cells in 2002. I loved that album, and since then I’ve tried to closely follow his work. But that can be a difficult task – Jack never stays in the same place for long, and he never does the same thing twice. In the last few years, he’s formed two additional bands (The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather), and he’s started his own production company, Third Man Records. From there, he’s helmed productions for all sorts of artists.
I think my favorite aspect of his work is the raw, unpolished nature of it. He’s one of the most talented guitarists in the world, but he shuns frills and spectacle in favor of a simplistic approach that cuts right to the heart of what he’s trying to say. His music sounds like a living thing – an invisible force that breaths electricity and fire. It’s like he’s playing with lightning and Tesla coils. I think this clip from It Might Get Loud perfectly sums up his musical approach, and it really gives you an idea of how he thinks:
This week, Jack finally released his first solo album, Blunderbuss. After working with so many different kinds of people and so many different genres, it’s interesting that this is the first time he’s worked alone. It goes without saying that this is probably his most personal, biographical album. We’ve seen Jack play all kinds of different music, and this album takes the common themes found in all of them and weaves them into something warm and familiar, yet totally unique.
In a way, I saw this album as a perfect antithesis to his work with The White Stripes. When it comes to love songs, there are few that perfectly capture the feeling as well as The White Stripes did. Songs like Hotel Yorba, I’m Slowly Turning Into You, and Apple Blossom remind you why love is so great. They’re euphoric, joyful, and fun. They perfectly capture that feeling of just wanting to run off with someone and be with them forever. Most love songs focus on romance and sexual attraction, but these are about so much more than that. They’re about the sense of fulfillment you get at finding someone that makes you feel like a whole person.
Jack’s solo album was written in the aftermath of his recent divorce. As expected, this album is about losing someone who makes you feel like a whole person. But as with before, it’s not like those love songs that focus on romance. It's about those unspoken feelings that you can't express in words. This album cut me to the core. It brought back a lot of memories and feelings from many parts of my past. I once loved someone who never loved me in return. We were best friends, but never more than that. But for years, I wouldn’t give up, even though I had to watch her with all sorts of other men. She fell for the strangest guys, and I always took it personally to be ignored in favor of these lowlifes. Eventually, she got tired of me and told me off. There’s a song on this album where Jack sings about what was said to him, and it’s exactly, word-for-word what this girl said to me. I couldn’t believe how spot-on it was.
But as painful as it was to listen to this, it was also a very healing thing. And that’s because Jack faces these issues with both a sense of defiance and a sense of acceptance. He walks headfirst into the cold with a cigarette in his mouth and electricity in his veins. It reminds me of a note I saw that he’d written for a child – “It ain’t going to be easy. I’m not kidding. But don’t give up, and stay a kid.” Jack is a blues man in every sense of the word; yet he always seems to live above it all. He lives with his grief and transforms it into art. This album isn’t about depression or heartbreak. He sings about the coldness of people and the fickle nature of life with a sense of flippancy and indifference.
And like everything Jack does, it’s catchy, energetic, and cool. It’s the kind of album you can listen to over and over without getting tired of it. Last night, Jack performed a dual concert in New York, and streamed the whole thing live online, directed by Gary Oldman. It was incredibly great, and he played music from all over his career. It was amazing to hear all of the pieces together in one place. They were so distinct, but still part of the same family. And this solo album feels like the long-lost capstone. If you’re a fan of Jack White in any way, you need this one!