Jack White: Blunderbuss

     

     Since the new millennium, the musical zeitgeist has undergone many twists and turns.  Throughout innumerable fads,  Jack White strummed the delicate balance between critical acclaim and commercial success.  Since viewers first laid their eyes on the White Stripes breakthrough lego-based vid, "Fell in Love with a Girl," White seems to have had the Midas touch with every album, band, and collaboration.  He has consistently explored, and mastered, new genres and new partnerships. Now, after sharpening his teeth with everyone in the business, Jack White is exploring his final frontier: a solo album.
     Blunderbuss eclectically glides from one genre to another with the same ease that White's entire career has, and the each song serves as a retrospective, with innuendos of each phase of his career peppered throughout. The album begins with the post-grunge sound reminiscent, but not mimicking of the White Stripes.  As the album flows, however, the songs begin to reflect his diverse musical interests, delving into folky Americana, and into ballsy blues rock, then into a melange of different interpretations of the three.  All songs are driven with White's guitar sensibilities.  White explores textures with extensive use of piano throughout the album.  The beauty of Blunderbuss is that each style is evenly distributed, and done with equal success. Despite being scattered, the album flow is cohesive. 
     Lyrically, White shows is graceful aging, as his lyrics and style reflect over a decade of maturity and success.    He sounds withered and beaten.  White sings deeper and hazier regarding relationships, love and life.  He has dealt with success, loss, and acceptance, and Blunderbuss is his story of it.
     Jack White is no longer simply a great musician.  He is a benchmark for the modern generation, a future Hall of Famer who truly understands the nature of music.  Blunderbuss is not surprising, or exceptional departure from his norm.  More, it is  signpost for a now legendary musician, and what he has learned on his ever-lengthening journey.   Truly a great album.