JACK WHITE

Blunderbuss

[Third Man/XL/Columbia]

You knew someone as restlessly prolific as Jack White would get around to it eventually. After six albums with the White Stripes, two each with the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather, collaborations with everyone from Loretta Lynn to Conan O’Brien and innumerable moves as producer and record-label entrepreneur, the pride of Detroit (and more recently of Nashville) has finally released a solo album. White wrote, recorded and produced Blunderbuss, which fleshes out a sound that the later White Stripes albums only hinted at. These are fuller arrangements that move well beyond the gut-punch garage-blues the Stripes first staked out 15 years ago.

In fact, Blunderbuss is an eclectic album, with elements of hazy country, vintage-style Tin Pan Alley pop, weird jazz riffs and, of course, scorching rock ’n’ roll. White gives keyboards a prominent role, alternating between jaunty organ riffs like the one on opener “Missing Pieces” and the bright piano parts that twinkle on “Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy” and swell through “Hypocritical Kiss.” And he doesn’t neglect his guitar playing, dialing in his trademark shrieking power-drill tone for a seething solo on the gospel-flavored stomper “I’m Shakin’,” and ripping through “Sixteen Saltines” with a massive, snarling riff he punctuates with a “Woo!” With its mixture of sounds and styles, Blunderbuss is the first White project that collects the varied facets of his career into one all-encompassing portrait of the artist. It’s an epic work—one that reinforces his reputation for wide-ranging musical explorations, backed by an abundance of talent. –Eric R. Danton