Jack White - Boarding House Reach
(Third Man)

Have y'all ever seen The Room; that legendarily horrible cult classic film that came out in the early 2000's? Well, if you ever wanted to hear the musical equivalent of that in the form of a Jack White album, look no further than Boarding House Reach, his 3rd solo album. I desperately wish I could have been a fly on the wall when this record was being made. Almost every musical idea (at first), comes off incredibly forced and just plain confusing. It really does sound like Jack White has gone off the deep end here; be it with the psychedelic, spoken word passages, or the extremely rock n' roll falsetto screams and back-up vocals (like on the track “Over And Over And Over”). The dude even raps on a track (“Ice Station Zebra”), like what the hell is going on here? It's honestly somewhat beautiful, amidst all the awkward, uproarious laughs and confusion I had while listening to this record. It's definitely my favorite Jack White album outside of anything he did with The White Stripes. I fully support his decision to be weird and alienating to his fan base. To me this album sounds like him saying "fuck it", and just having fun. For an artist that is this well-established, to consciously try and make an outsider / weirdo rock record, is a move I'm completely fascinated with. Maybe he was just too tired of making dad rock? He’s always gotten good reviews so I'm not sure why everything went awol. Take the track "Corporation.” It's not so much a written song as it is a stream of consciousness with a bunch of different musical ideas stitched together. Sure, why not? I'm at a point now where I embrace Boarding House Reach for the sheer musical audacity of it. I think it's genuinely enjoyable and lowkey-amazing. But is it an actual good record? That's entirely subjective. You just have to hear this. (VII)
Check out a track here.