Title: Blunderbuss
Artiste: Jack White
Genre: Rock
Familiarity: I've listened to one album by The White Stripes, but the way everyone here talks about this guy it's like he's the Second Coming or the reincarnation of Hendrix or something. We'll see.
Recommended by: TechnicLePanther
Expectations: Perhaps it's unfair, but given all the hype around him, the almost messianic at times praise for him and his band, and the coverage of him in the music press, I'm expecting to be seriously impressed.
1. Missing pieces: Good musical build up at the beginning, decent rocker but a bit meh for an opener. Awful ending.
2. Sixteen saltlines: Better rocker; biting guitar. Still waiting though.
3. Freedom at 21: #Justnotfeelingit
4. Love interruption: Bit better. Good female vocals and nice clarinet. Still just okay though.
5. Blunderbuss: Nice Country style ballad. Some lovely violin and piano. A lot better. About time.
6. Hypocritical kiss: Sweet rippling piano opening this; good rolling drumbeat. Lot of emotion and energy.
7. Weep themselves to sleep: I assumed this would be a ballad. It isn't. Uses a lot of piano but in very much more an uptempo way. Pretty great really.
8. I'm shakin': As you might expect from the title, too much Elvis/Rockabilly in this, which I hate. So Red for this, sorry.
9. Trash tongue talker: This also has an element of rockabilly in it, but I like it more. More piano in evidence and a sense of blues mixed with soul too.
10. Hip (eponymous) poor boy: Kind of folky, upbeat Country feel to this. Not bad.
11. I guess I should go to sleep: More female vocals added, decent enough song, more Country style. Thought it would be a ballad. Wrong again. The piano run that keeps coming in is disconcerting and annoying; does not fit in with the rhythm or tone of the song.
12. On and on and on: Lovey soft violin opening but it kind of loses me along the way, pulling me back in for the end. Meh.
13. Take me with you when you go: I think what this album is missing (well, one of the things) is a really lovely soulful ballad. This is not it.
End result: On the strength of this, I would venture to say that White's reputation is overblown. I thought it was okay, in places very dull in others very annoying; nothing I'm really going to take away from it and nothing that's going to push me in his or his band's direction.
So, Love or Hate? Because it has a few decent tracks I'll save it from a meh and give it a very low key
Like.