Understanding Jack White’s Insane New Record

The former leading man of the White Stripes has released his most eclectic work yet.

THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON -- Episode 0530 -- Pictured: Musical guest Jack White performs on September 9, 2016 -- (Photo by: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON -- Episode 0530 -- Pictured: Musical guest Jack White performs on September 9, 2016 -- (Photo by: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Jack White is back with a new solo album, one that swerves in every possible direction. A new article in Esquire catalogues the insanity inside White’s “Boarding House Reach,” which reviewer Matt Miller calls “a concept album of White’s own intimate relationship with music.” The album is exploratory, expanding the once-White Stripe’s taste and range. Boarding House Reach jumps from blues to jam rock to fairytale to piano ballad, while still making space for the guitar snarls and folk tendencies that made White a star in the first place. As Miller argues, the album offers Jack White fans a new intimacy, a clue into the many, disparate sounds that animate his art.

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