So why does a dog need a walk?
Jack White would really like you to think about it, and he explores this idea and various other ideas and themes on his new album "Boarding House Reach," such as corporate America, love (a tried and true theme since the dawn of rock 'n' roll), pretentious literary allusion and big vocabularies. Sonically, White delivers these ideas passionately and earnestly.
The album is packed with earnest effort and energy. When White's not howling and screaming, his vocal delivery makes you feel that he's either standing yelling passionately over a lectern or that the two of you are sitting down somewhere, and he's risen from his chair and has been leaning on the coffee table screaming his thoughts at you for the last 45 minutes.
The album is also fairly interesting sonically. Jack White maintains much of the classic-rock sound that influenced the fuzzy, garage-rock style of his earlier work with Meg White in the "White Stripes" (most are familiar with the songs "Seven Nation Army" or "Fell In Love With A Girl" that the duo rolled out together.)
However, the album also incorporates many modern sounds. For example, it has the very modern sounding bass tone, which would feel more at home in a more electronic genre, prominently featured in the first track, "Connected by Love." The contrast of these more modern productions with the more classic ones, such as the church organs and the soulful backing vocals that frequently accompany Jack on the album, make for a good mix. That said, the album does at times just keep it nice and simple, with songs like "What's Done Is Done" echoing the direct folksy quality of some of White's earlier gems like "We Are Going to Be Friends."
At times, however, the album leaves a lot to be desired lyrically. The first two songs are a bad first impression in this way.
"Connected by Love" is your typical love song, flowered with vague mentions of pain that the unnamed lover relieves the speaker of and how they otherwise make their lives more enjoyable. The chorus particularly comes off as corny with its repetition of the titular line, "We're connected by love." The instrumental backing makes the song still somewhat enjoyable, but a dope organ solo can only do so much.
I found that "Humoresque" did a much better job of conveying the emotions and feelings of love earnestly, without seeming cliched or corny. The lyrics are stronger, and overall, the energy of the "Humoresque" fits the subject of love a bit better, coming off as subdued and vulnerable as opposed to the more epic quality of "Connected by Love."
The earlier mentioned "Why Walk A Dog?" doesn't do much better. The delivery gives us the sense that Jack really feels like he's getting very philosophical. The line, "These cats seem to blow everyone's mind but mine / What is so funny about beasts above understanding?" comes across as pretentious eye-roll fodder.
That said, the second verse is a little better, Jack now finding an actually philosophical voice rather than just questioning the mundane: "So somebody mated them / and took their babies away from them / stuck a price tag on their nose / and now you're buying it clothes," which he then follows by again asking "So, why does a dog need to be walked?" This implies that our pets live a kind of object-like existence. For that reason, the song might be seen as moral-snobbery or holier-than-thou, but White himself is a dog owner, so this can be chalked down to a thought experiment rather than him being lyrically militant.
"Corporation" almost avoids the lyrical curse on the album by keeping instrumental save for a few yells and who's-with-me's interjected by White throughout, but then at some point he feels the need to speak up a little more with lines like: "Now a'days that's how you get adulation / Who wants to start a corporation?" where his point was already made in the song's title, vibe and energy.
It feels very hamfisted and too on the nose where a little bit of subtlety could have gone a long way towards not sounding like an excessively self-indulgent, anti-Corporate-America rock singer. Songs like "Everything You've Learned" and "Ice Station Zebra" suffer from a similar fate, but at least "Corporation" didn't have Jack trying his hand at rapping.
There are also several instances of esoteric and somewhat humorous spoken word sections throughout. In the case of "Abulia and Akrasia" I found it funny, but there are other times where I just don't know what to make of it.
Overall, the album has its moments in the good sense and the bad. I'm sure I'll come back to certain songs after some time, but the album is a mixed bag of a few good songs, a few bad ones, and a lot of songs that have mixed quality in and of themselves. But what's done is done.
5/10
Favorites: Hypermisophoniac, What's Done is Done
Least Favorites: Everything You've Ever Learned, Ice Station Zebra
