Album Review: Boarding House Reach, Jack White

In 2008’s It Might Get Loud documentary, Jack White tells The Edge and Jimmy Page how he uses “guitars that are a little bit bent and out of tune, I want to battle it, I want it to be a struggle.” Imagine a doctor, just for argument’s sake, adopting a similar approach, “Yes, I could have operated using the proper medical equipment, but I kept it real by going at you with this spoon”.

Sometimes the idea of Jack White – the Son House covering analogue blues nut, the vinyl fiend who, admirably, put the money up for the always interesting-at-least Third Man Records – has been better than the thing itself. He has always, whether it be as a White Stripe, a Raconteur, a Dead Weather, or a solo artist, produced a nifty line in singles, but he has tended to paint himself into a corner with those self-imposed restrictions. Boarding House Reach is his attempt to break out, with wildly varying results.

The single ‘Connected By Love’, an industrial pulse giving way to a storming, almost gospel chorus is a promising introduction. ‘Why Does A Dog?’, which follows, is a bit of a dirge but it’s at least recognisable as a song. ‘Corporation’ features prominent conga drums over snatches of White’s guitar, calling to mind the Incredible Bongo Band’s version of ‘Apache’, the cut that gave birth to a thousand hip-hop records, which is probably the point.

‘Abulia and Akrasia’, with old-timey Australian chancer CW Stoneking juggling syllables, is at least mercifully short, as is the maudlin ‘Ezmerelda Steals The Show’. Apparently, both songs started off as poems. You can tell.

It seems unlikely that ‘Hypermisophoniac’, with its varispeed voices over clangs and beeps, or the White boy (literally) rapping on ‘Ice Station Zebra’ will age well, and ‘Everything You’ve Ever Learned’ is, frankly, bollocks. But there are interesting elements in each song – a snarl of guitar or a piano line – that could have been developed further. The same could be said for the sped-up-drums-sporting ‘Respect Commander’ – there’s something worth hearing buried in there.

Things improve on ‘Over And Over And Over’, which rocks the closest to his older records, and the squelchy-keyboards groove of ‘Get In The Mind Shaft’ cries out for a guest-spot from George Clinton or Bootsy Collins. The country ballad ‘What’s Done Is Done’ and the lullaby ‘Humoresque’ both serve as reminders that White can knock out the good stuff when he chooses to.

Hats off then for what will probably be seen in time as a transitional record, a bit like the busman’s holiday U2 took on the Passengers album, groping about for a signpost to somewhere else. White hits the barn a few times, but at least he’s swinging for the trees.

Rating: 7/10