JACK OVER-REACHER
Jack White’s restless crushing of style boundaries continues apace with this good if rather uneven album, says Andy Gill
Jack White, Boarding House Reach ★★★☆☆ Download: Connected By Love; Corporation; Over And Over And Over; Ice Station Zebra Who does Jack White think he is? Well, judging by the cover to Boarding House Reach, a smoothly
airbrushed simulacrum of Keanu Reeves, which rather flatters both men, in complementary ways. But the question remains pertinent due to White’s restless probing of musical boundaries, with each new release wrong-footing listeners by shifting from blues to pop to prog to goth to whichever new cloud his head is in at the moment. So, who does Jack White think he is this time?
Hard to tell from the single “Connected By Love”, which opens with a slow, momentous synth buzz burring behind White’s passionate entreaties to the object of his affection; it’s a sort of electro-blues, which gradually expands via gospelly backing vocals, strident organ solo and one of Jack’s signature bursts of splintered guitar, into something genuinely unique, in touch with his blues roots but straining for some new expression of emotion.
Things become a bit clearer with “Corporation”, which finds him squealing with delight about the prospect of starting a corporation (isn’t he one already?), over a shuffling funk-fusion groove of clavinet and congas. Having expanded his accompanists with a plethora of seasoned soul, funk and jazz session players, White’s clearly had great fun jamming with them, recording the results on much the same basic analogue gear he used as a teenager, and “Corporation” offers the first indication of where that’s taking him here.
An entertaining, multifaceted set, albeit weakened by a tendency to pursue slim ideas and dead-end notions
There’s an ever-present feel of the extempore about these tracks, which sometimes seem to succeed through sheer persistence, and sometimes struggle to coalesce into something worthwhile. The choogling funk clavinet returns for “Ice Station Zebra”, alongside declamatory piano chords and tumbling drums, epitomising White’s rap about pursuing one’s individual direction; but the blending of electric piano, organ, cuica, choral voices and synth-sheet backdrop over the shuffling Latin rhythm of “Get In The Mind Shaft” just results in a bit of a mess.
“Over And Over And Over” is better, with White’s meteorological metaphors and references to the onerous burdens of Atlas and Sisyphus harnessed to an infectiously waspish guitar riff; the resulting progmetal anthem is both heavy and hummable, positively Zep-tastic in the way it hints at uncontrollable urges and mythic destinies. Elsewhere, “What’s Done Is Done” is a fairly straight piano blues, and “Ezmerelda Steals The Show” a poem recited over waltzing guitar arpeggios, while the combination of bustling guitar riff, organ and total dropout lacunae puts the devotional “Respect Commander” well in the shade of Hendrix’s long, jammed version of “Voodoo Chile”.
Overall, it’s an entertaining, multifaceted set, albeit weakened by a tendency to pursue slim ideas and dead-end notions – a clutter of synths, a gypsy fiddle, a Dvorak melody, a comedy announcement – that give Boarding House Reach a rather fragmentary character. Which, I suppose, reflects Jack White’s own at this moment.