Do you know what album that can kick Adele’s 21 out of Top Chart in UK and US? Yes. You’re right! It’s Jack White‘s Blunderbuss!
This is one of my most anticipated album in this early year. Along with John Mayer’s Born And Raised. But i think John Mayer has reached his peak at Continuum. I might be wrong though.
I’ve been listening to Blunderbuss for about umm.. maybe 69 times. Haha. I don’t know. Too often maybe. And i don’t get tired of his music. He’s a genius. He’s the saviour of the blues rock. Exaggerated? Maybe. Who cares anyway 😀
In case maybe some of you don’t him. He’s a multi-instrumentalist musician and frontman of White Stripes, The Raconteur and The Dead Weather. Have collaborated with renowned musician such as Beck, The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, Alicia Keys, Bob Dylan, Electric Six, Insane Clown Posse, and Loretta Lynn. He’s probably one the most busiest musician today. Not to mention Dave Grohl and Mike Patton of course.
Compare to his project with White Stripes, The Raconteur, Or The Dead Weather, inarguably Blunderbuss (which, for the curious, is a “muzzle-loading firearm” and a term with Dutch origins that roughly translates to “thunder pipe.”) is his masterpiece so far. Will be a classic album in the near future. Wanna bet? 🙂
This is very well concepted album. But he made it very easy. Bluesy lyrics. Passionately creating and performing copious amounts of tunes covering a wide spectrum of styles in music and sound. Vintage one.
To promote Blunderbuss in Saturday Night Live on March,3 2012 episode. He performed with two different backing bands, one all-female and the other all-male. But i love the latter with Carla Azra on drumset. Oh absolute beauty. They got the chemistry. Let’s forget Meg White, shall we?
When it comes to guitar playing, White is best known for the heavy, raucous anthemic riffs like “Seven Nation Army” or “Icky Thump” that he banged out early in his career. In Blunderbuss you can listen to “Sixteen Saltines“.
“Freedom at 21” is particularly catchy, a lone rattling drumkit and a stark snaking guitar line witnessing how White’s poor boy has the soles of his feet cut off. The solo in “Freedom at 21” echoes the Stripes’ “Blue Orchid” by mixing dry and octave guitar tracks played on a Bigsby-equipped Tele. To differentiate from the latter, “Freedom” adds a smidge of delay that offers a trippy stereo effect from right to left with headphones on.
The guitar riffs will get the headlines, but the album’s real artistry and strength are shown in the writing and composition. Piano-driven tunes like the attitude-oozing “Trash Tongue Talker” and the soothing, country, two-timing ballad “Blunderbuss” boast White as more than a 21st-century guitar hero. He’s a great composer.
White spends the first half of the album dwelling on womankind’s perfidy, casting himself as the suffering plaything of a series of vicious femmes fatales. Love has often been a pugilistic game in White’s mind but this time, on track one, he’s actually losing limbs. The partial lyrics of “I Guess I Should Go To Sleep”:
“.. I guess i should go to sleep, too hard standin’ on my own two feet. Been walkin on too long on a dead-end street. I guess i should go to sleep..”
“.. I guess i’ll take off my shoes, head upstair and watch the news. That’s another way to lose this walkin’ blues. I guess i’ll take off my shoes..”
Grammy is on its way. More awards to come. Album of the year for me. And it’s month of May. 😀
This is blues what is all about. Robert Johnson must be proud of you Jack! Well done.