Finally picked this up - it's a lot better than I expected. Really love the middle group of songs, Love Interruption, Blunderbuss, Weep Themselves to Sleep ...the piano and slightly, I dunno, honky-tonk/country-fied approach really suits him.
I feel like he's still got a lot of artifice in his songwriting that he needs to get rid of. He feels too self conscious still or soemthing, like he's trying to prove something with his songs. I think if that ever goes away and he writes from the heart he'll be incredible.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 21:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
I like the artifice, at this stage in the game a rich white guy playing blues-rock is about as artificial as you can get so he might as well play around with it.
This is a pretty good album, better than the Dead Weather at least, I agree that middle section is the strongest, although I need to give it time to sink in a bit more.
― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 07:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
i think Get Behind Me Satan was pretty from the heart tbh. in fact i think most of jack's stuff is from the heart. its just that jack's got a weird heart.
― It was you. Miming to Tenacious D. (stevie), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 07:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
I don't like thinking about artifice vs "from the heart" as a binary anyway but I think it's especially unhelpful with this record. The whole album is clearly about the emotions following a split with his bandmate and/or his wife, only dressed up in fantastical narratives.
― Get wolves (DL), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 13:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
he's a fraud cuz that one song sounds like the beginning of 'heart shaped box'
― Poliopolice, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
i think that binary is unhelpful with jack in general because he is a uniquely self-aware artist who nevertheless writes from a very wounded and self-involved perspective. every time i've interviewed him i've marveled at how he seems, simultaneously, unaffected and yet playing me as an interviewer. he is sharp as heck. i don't think this album is as 'plainly' about the split from karen/meg as you suggest, but i also think that's a prime motivator. the thing with jack white is, you never quite know when he's cluing you into how john gillis really feels. that's part of his magic, why he's more interesting than, say, the potatoes in the black keys.
― It was you. Miming to Tenacious D. (stevie), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:38 (1 year ago) Permalink
Jack White is not a sexist!
― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 May 2012 21:02 (11 months ago) Permalink
"Jack White... not... a... sexist. Got it."
― Mordy, Wednesday, 30 May 2012 21:52 (11 months ago) Permalink
This was a better response to the Jessica Misener article imo
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/apr/27/jack-white-problem-women-laura-barton
― Get wolves (DL), Thursday, 31 May 2012 08:59 (11 months ago) Permalink
certainly not since Dylan has an artist played with our perceptions the way that White does
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:10 (11 months ago) Permalink
Not to mention that White, né Gillis, did something the overwhelming majority of men are too threatened by women to do: he took his wife’s surname.
Where did he take it?
― Mark G, Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:30 (11 months ago) Permalink
xp Yes well I'm not cosigning every line but I like the gist. I thought Misener's argument relied on cherrypicking, misreading and faulty information.
― Get wolves (DL), Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:30 (11 months ago) Permalink
I think the article is fine, just pondering JWhite's 'use' of his wife's surname: Where did that happen?
― Mark G, Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:42 (11 months ago) Permalink
Um, all the time? He calls himself Jack White, after Meg White. Or are you thinking of Karen Elson?
― Get wolves (DL), Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:52 (11 months ago) Permalink
Well, yeah I was.
― Mark G, Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:54 (11 months ago) Permalink
OK, being 'pka' is not the same as actually taking yr wife's surname in marriage.
― Mark G, Thursday, 31 May 2012 09:55 (11 months ago) Permalink