Favourite Releases of 2012: Jack White - Blunderbuss (Third Man Records)

A no-brainer for anyone who knows me or reads this blog. This past April, Jack White, my favourite musician for the past eleven years, finally dropped his long-awaited debut solo album Blunderbuss. I tried to review Blunderbuss when it came out, but when it started becoming a God-damned thesis (after about day five), for the sake of my sanity and having a life, I scrapped it. So, I'm going to try to keep my thoughts on Blunderbuss short.

We've heard Jack in big-band situations before, most notably with the Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson whose 2011 album The Party Ain't Over Jack produced, played on and released through his company Third Man Records, but we've never heard Jack play with a large ensemble totally on his terms, with him as the chief conductor.

Solo albums are usually hit or miss with me (mostly miss), but there isn't one sour note on Blunderbuss. It's everything Jack White fans could and should have expected from him: a blend of songs that touch upon most periods of his extensive history of work. Lead singles "Sixteen Saltines" and "Love Interruption" could very well have been salvaged from the White Stripes' surely bottomless demo-bin - "Hypocritical Kiss," "Weep Themselves To Sleep" and "I Guess I Should Go To Sleep" re-upholstered from leftover Raconteurs material. And no one can deny the influence of Jack's work with Wanda Jackson on the jumpy, swingin', impossibly, unfathomably cool Little Willie Johnson cover "I'm Shakin'."

But Jack White fans should have expected that he was going to tread new territory as well, as he has with every single full-length album he's released in his career. Jack has never saloon-rocked like he does on "Trash Tongue Talker." More notably, however, nothing he has ever done has trembled like the low-rumbling "Freedom at 21," and while Jack seems to stretch his vocals in new ways every time we hear him in full-length studio format, we've certainly never heard him rap as he nearly does on "Freedom at 21." Perhaps he once again drew inspiration, this time from his long-rumoured session (sessions?) with Jay-Z and his ill-fated session with RZA that never materialized because RZA no-showed but, with a full band already on hand, ultimately led to jamming and writing the songs that would become Blunderbuss.

Although I've identified particular songs on Blunderbuss with particular periods of Jack White's work, I do so non-definitively: I simply mean to draw attention to what I feel is the most prominent leaning of each song. Ultimately, Blunderbuss can be considered Jack's opus because for the first time, Jack has truly combined everything he has ever done not only across one album, effortlessly and cheaply mimicking a career-spanning "best of" compilation, but within individual songs as well. That is the success of Jack White's premier outing as a solo artist. Though I see most of the styles and motifs Jack has covered on Blunderbuss re-appearing on solo album number two (if and when that ever happens), that Jack has finally made his statement as to who is as an artist today - who his fifteen-plus-year career has made him - has finally given him the leeway - the freedom and possibly even the peace of mind - to move on and really tread new territory.