I never understood the bonkers fascination with Jack White\u2019s solo work\u2014what I\u2019ll be referring to as his \u2018blue phase,\u2019 since he shifted colour palettes from the cherry red of The White Stripes to navy blue, right down to his now-dyed hair.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first two blue phase albums were fine, Blunderbuss<\/em> and Lazaretto<\/em>, alternative blues-rock with a few notable hits and riffs that still get stuck in my head from time to time\u2014\u201dI\u2019m Shakin\u2019\u201d and \u201cLazaretto,\u201d but after that he kind of went off of the deep end. That\u2019s not to say he\u2019s not talented, but it seems like at this point in his career, he\u2019s building songs based on weird sounds he can tinker with rather than good songwriting. And this is coming from a guy who has released some of the most quoted guitar music in the last 30 years\u2014The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His latest album, Fear of the Dawn,<\/em>\u2014one of two albums he plans on releasing in 2022\u00a0 has his freaky in-the-red guitar style, space-age theremin, trip-hop drumming, and strange use of sampling. It\u2019s a bizarre listening experience and really not for a good reason. I don\u2019t know what he\u2019s going for in the opener \u201cTaking Me Back,\u201d but it honestly felt like I was getting motion sickness. It\u2019s just a sonic mess, right down to random \u201880s oscillating keyboard solo \u2026 just because?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mixing is also all over the place in the title track. His vocals, which you can tell he\u2019s shouting in, are so quiet while the bluesy doom main riff is turned up to 11. Again, motion sickness\u2014and for what? \u2018Cause, the guitar sounds cool? Did this really have to be a song?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe White Raven,\u201d also has a guitar riff that sounds like something you\u2019d pull out of a Jack White riff machine, so overdone with so-so execution. The same goes with \u201cWhat\u2019s the Trick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then comes \u201cHi-De-Ho,\u201d beginning with a random fuzz line and a Cab Calloway sample of him imitating an Arabic muezzin call. It\u2019s so jarring, but\u2019s worse is Q-Tip\u2019s off-the-cuff rap line and White singing literal random garbage into the mic afterward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What happened to the Jack White who appreciated the little nuances of blues music\u2014who would listen to a Son House record on repeat for one lyrical line? I guess he got bored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"