I didn't much want to handle this review for rock nyc. I was hoping Helen or Alyson would take it on. I was never a huge fan of Jack White, and after watching the White Stripes being outplayed into irrelevant by the Strokes at Radio City Music Hall, I grew to actively dislike him.
I also watched the Raconteurs perform a terrible set opening for Dylan at the Meadowlands and passed on the Dead Weathermen.
I lost all interest in the man, and his terrible performance with the Stones on "Shine A Light" sealed the deal.
I didn't want this review.
But I got it and now I've got to do it. A blunderbuss is somebody "unsubtle or clumsy" -so let's call it a minor self portrait and it will point you to what is wrong, or at least not quite right, with Blunderbuss: it is a minor work. a tinted mirror of White backing in on itself, and self-referential, self-absorbed, it doesn't invite the listener in. White chases his tail round and round and round, it is the antithesis of story telling: it leads nowhere but back to the bizarre cipher at its fulcrum.
Then once you've said that it is a minor work, or, at least, in a minor key, the sheer quality of the material is completely overwhelming. It is White's best work since 2001's White Blood Cells. If you are gonna maintain your first solo album in such a claustrophobic antecedent form fuck, you better write great songs and play them very well and White does just that.
It isn't a blues album, though it has blues, it is a country rock album by a narcissistic singer songwriter hiding behind white make up. "Trash Tongue Talker" is the sort of rocker the Stones haven't done in decades,"Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy" is an an inspired rockabilly novelty song, "Sixteen Saltines" was a terrific lead off single and "Missing Pieces" with its quasi-classical sleight of hand intro, and White Stripey blues minimalism is a terrific opener…
This is really quite remarkable. I can't find a bad song in the lot. I haven't been concentrating too hard on the lyric and the instruments are lightly arranged and not particularly fussy. Though the piano seems more prominent then usual the break on "Missing Pieces" is pure Ian Stewart.
Tickets to the Roseland gig are trading hands at $190 plus add ons and I just can't afford it, plus what I saw of the Webster Hall gig were a drag. BUT if it was the Beacon, I'd have weighed in.
Still, Blunderbuss is gonna end up one of the best albums of 2012.
Grade: A