"Boarding House Reach"- Jack White

Graham Craycraft

I have been letting this album sink in for a little while before giving it a written review. Jack White released his third solo album titled “Boarding House Reach” through his own record label Third Man Records. After leaving The White Stripes, White continued work with his bands The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs, but also made some killer stuff under his own name. His freshman album “Blunderbuss” was up there with the best songwriting and guitar playing from the White Stripes. His second album “Lazaretto” for the most part was just a solid piece with a few pretty good stand outs. With how solid these first two albums were I was pretty stoked for everything else White was going to be releasing.

Let me start this section of the review by saying that I am pretty much a Jack White fanboy. I love all of his White Stripes’ work and a good portion of his work with his other two bands. So when he went solo and began with an album of the caliber “Blunderbuss”, well that was truly a gift. I have listened to “Boarding House Reach” at least ten times and have grown to like a few songs such as “Over and Over and Over” and “Ice Station Zebra.” They have that crunchy texture and weird vibe that Jack White does so well, but I like them so much because they are so close to White’s past work. They feel like they could touch somewhere in “Lazaretto” or the self titled album “The White Stripes.” I like these songs because they are what I look for and like in Jack White, but mainly just because they are good songs. Other songs like “Connected by Love” and “Why Walk a Dog?” are fine. They aren’t something I would ever seek out, but they are not messy. They may be scattered, but not messy.

And then we get to this point. The mess. White definitely took a different direction with this album and often times that is not necessarily a bad thing. Some artists can do this well. Looking at when Dylan came out with “Highway 61 Revisited” or when Tyler, the Creator moved on from his hard ties with Odd Future. I don’t know exactly what White was trying to accomplish with this album, but I can say, personally, it did not work. “Hypermisophoniac,” “Humoresque,” and “What’s Done is Done,” are just a mess. They either do not work at all, or they have something seriously flawed that prevent me from enjoying. “Corporation” is the worst song White has ever released and utterly unlistenable. Then we get to the songs like “Abulia and Akrasia,” “Everything You’ve Ever Learned,” and “Ezmerelda Steals the Show” which are not even songs. They are just slowly spoken words over light music that do not work, but I’m not saying this can not work. Tom Waits does this in songs like “What’s He Building?” and it works because it is poetry that actually fits in the album. In “Boarding House Reach” these three songs (which is a generous description) only detract from the overall album and are pretty much just a failure.

I love Jack White and I love his previous work and innovation to the garage rock alt scene, but this album was just a colossal disaster that makes me frustrated and confused. I get that he may have been trying to break the mold from his past work which had made him who he is, but I will not be listening to this album much, if at all.