Blunderbuss (album)
Blunderbuss is the debut solo album by Jack White. It was released digitally on April 20, 2012, and in physical formats on April 23 through White's own Third Man Records label, in association with XL Recordings and Columbia Records. Written almost entirely by White, the album was recorded and produced by White in Nashville, Tennessee in 2011. Various musical styles appear throughout the album, including blues rock, folk, and country soul.
The album received positive reviews from critics, holding a score of 83 out of 100 on review aggregator site Metacritic. It debuted at number one in five countries and debuted in the top ten in 10 other countries. It was certified diamond by the Independent Music Companies Association; platinum by Music Canada; and gold by the British Phonographic Industry, the Australian Recording Industry Association, and the Recording Industry Association of America. Blunderbuss was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Rock Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, while the single "Freedom at 21" was nominated for Best Rock Song. In addition, the single "I'm Shakin'" was nominated for Best Rock Performance at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.
The first single from the album, "Love Interruption", was released on January 30, 2012 through White's website. The single "Sixteen Saltines" was uploaded to White's YouTube channel on March 13, and on March 20, the song was released as a 7-inch vinyl single with a cover of U2's "Love Is Blindness" as its B-side. On April 1, Third Man Records released the album's third single, "Freedom at 21", by attaching flexi-disc copies of the song to 1000 helium balloons. A video for the album's final single, a cover of Little Willie John's "I'm Shakin'", was released on October 10, and on October 30 the single was released digitally and on 7-inch vinyl with the B-side "Blues on Two Trees".
Background and development
Prior to the creation of Blunderbuss, Jack White had been a member of the duo the White Stripes along with Meg White. In 2007, the band went on a tour after releasing the album Icky Thump. In the midst of the tour, the band canceled its United States tour dates, citing Meg White's struggle with acute anxiety; shortly afterwards, the band canceled the remainder of its 2007 tour dates. The band then went on a hiatus, during which Jack White worked on various other projects. In 2008, the Raconteurs, of which White was a member, released its second album, Consolers of the Lonely. The rock supergroup the Dead Weather, another band that included White, released its debut album Horehound in 2009 and Sea of Cowards in 2010. In addition, White produced Wanda Jackson's 2011 album The Party Ain't Over. Ultimately, the White Stripes broke up in 2011. In June 2011, White and his wife Karen Elson, who provided backing vocals for Blunderbuss, announced their intention to divorce and held a divorce party.Produced at Third Man Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, Blunderbuss has its roots in White's recordings with several artists under his label, Third Man Records, including Tom Jones and Wanda Jackson. During these recordings, White learned to direct groups with as many as 12 people, more than he had directed under his previous musical projects. White started recording his own songs as a result of Wu-Tang Clan member RZA's last-minute cancellation of his attendance of a session that White had planned. Reluctant to send away the musicians who had shown up for the session, White decided to use them to record some of his material. White did not initially intend to create an album, but he found that after recording "six or seven songs it started to click that it was all becoming something".
White noted that directing hired musicians rather than working with a band afforded him several advantages: in the latter case he could not "tell other people what to play", whereas in the former case he "could ask people to play something" and then "go somewhere else and work on another part", thus enabling him to write "on the spot... and for other musicians". Furthermore, the "freedom of having own studio and having people in Nashville who could come at short notice" enabled him to use "100 different production styles" on Blunderbuss. While recording songs for the album, White alternated between all-male and all-female backing bands. He often recorded different versions of individual songs using each band to "see if anything changed". According to White, the sessions for the album generated "something like 25 songs", 13 of which were included in the album. Most of the album's songs were written and recorded in the latter half of 2011.
White decided to release the album through Columbia Records due to its history as "the first record label" and its capacity to expand the album's reach. According to White, friends of his asked him why he did not release the album solely through his label, Third Man Records. He believed that doing so might "do a disservice", and he stated that he had "nothing to prove about being indie or anything like that". The album was engineered and mixed by Grammy Award-winning sound engineer Vance Powell, who had also worked with such names as The Whigs and Kings of Leon. While Bob Ludwig was working on mastering, he suggested to Powell that they avoid compression and increase the gain, an idea to which White responded enthusiastically. White was pleased with the results, finding that the album "did not get changed by compression, it was just louder". Most songs on the album were recorded to 8-track analog tape; no more than 14 tracks were used per song. White preferred analog to digital, finding fault in the latter's variety of "options to change the sounds that you are putting down" since it " all the inherent soulful qualities of what is going on". The use of 8-track tape limited the number of tracks White
could add to a song, allowing him to "focus on better things".
Composition
Music
Blunderbuss is a blues rock album that incorporates a variety of musical elements. "Missing Pieces" and "Take Me with You When You Go" resemble progressive folk music, and "I Guess I Should Go to Sleep" is a country rock song. R&B is present in White's cover of Little Willie John's "I'm Shakin'", which includes female backing vocalists. "Freedom at 21" contains hip hop influences, and it uses a "clattering drum pattern" that was achieved by placing a tape echo on a drumbeat that Carla Azar had played. "On and On and On" presents various moods and musical elements throughout. The final track, "Take Me with You When You Go", begins with "cool jazz breeziness" written in a time signature, then transitions to a "frantic rock" sound. Pitchforks Ryan Dombal found the album's "early rock, folk, and country styles" to resemble the Beatles' self-titled album. The country soul title track "Blunderbuss" and "Hypocritical Kiss" have been compared by critics to the works of Bob Dylan, and The Daily TelegraphRob Sheffield of Rolling Stone noted the presence of "made-in-Nashville flourishes" throughout the album, namely the fiddle, the mandolin, and the pedal steel guitar. "Missing Pieces" opens with a Rhodes piano and continues to use the instrument throughout, and "Sixteen Saltines" consists of "crunchy chords". The acoustic guitar and the Wurlitzer electric piano are prominent on the song "Love Interruption", which features vocals from Ruby Amanfu as well as the bass clarinet, played by Emily Bowland. Steve Kandell of Spin described the song as consisting of "mid-tempo soul", and Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune noted the song's "moody atmosphere". "Weep Themselves to Sleep" includes an "itchy and needling" guitar solo that consists of two guitars playing in different channels. This solo has the effect of transitioning out of an atmosphere of "orchestrated stateliness". Billboard described "Hip Poor Boy" as having a "complex, hopscotching melody and rhythm". The melody and lyrics for the song were conceived in a dream; upon awaking, White "forced self" to record what he had dreamt. "I Guess I Should Go to Sleep" is written in a "jazzy tempo", and it contains a violin solo.
Critics noted similarities and differences among Blunderbuss and music White had written for other musical projects, including the White Stripes, the Dead Weather, and the Raconteurs. The Toronto Stars Ben Rayner stated that White "doesn't feel much like playing the showboating White Stripes guitar god", though he mentioned "flashes of Stripe-esque fury" in the song "Sixteen Saltines". Other critics compared "Sixteen Saltines" to the White Stripes' "Blue Orchid". Michael Roffman of Consequence of Sound noted that "Love Interruption" was not as well-received as "Sixteen Saltines", "probably because with the Wurlitzer and the clarinet, didn't necessarily relive those feelings of seeing the ." Billboard viewed "I'm Shakin'" and "Trash Tongue Talker" as resembling music on Wanda Jackson's The Party Ain't Over, which White produced. Dombal described the album as being "closer to earth than fantastic White Stripes yet further away than the sometimes-pedestrian Raconteurs or Dead Weather". The Sunday Times remarked that "if lyrics seem oppressively focused on one subject, his music heads happily all over the place, echoing all the previous aspects of his career and wandering into new areas."
Lyrics and themes
In an interview for The New York Times, White said that Blunderbuss"Lyrical hooks" and "high school imagery" appear in the song "Sixteen Saltines", which depicts the conspicuousness of a former lover bringing an "emasculated, exasperated" narrator to a state of fragility. The titular track "Blunderbuss" utilizes internal rhymes and "images of decadence" as it describes an adulterous episode between the narrator and a married woman. Steve Hyden of The A.V. Club described "Hypocritical Kiss" as a "duality of recrimination and self-flagellation", and he interpreted the song as depicting an argument between Jack White and his former bandmate Meg White in the midst of the White Stripes' breakup. In the middle of the song, its lyrics shift from the point of view of one speaker in the conversation to the other. White said that the song "Hip Poor Boy" explores "white hipster musicianship and authenticity" and that its use of the word "stripes" represents "the flag and the American dream of profiting at any cost".
Promotion
On January 30, 2012, White announced the album Blunderbuss and release dates of April 23 and April 24. The same day, a free stream of "Love Interruption" was posted to White's website; the song was made available for purchase on January 31 at 12:00a.m. Eastern Standard Time. On February 7, a vinyl version of the song was released along with the B-side "Machine Gun Silhouette". The single peaked at 13 and 27 on the Billboard US Alternative Songs and US Rock Songs charts, respectively. On February 8, "Machine Gun Silhouette" was posted to SoundCloud, but it was quickly removed.White performed "Love Interruption" and "Sixteen Saltines" on the March 3, 2012 episode of Saturday Night Live with two different backing bands, one all-female and the other all-male. On March 8, White performed at a celebration of Third Man Records' third birthday at its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. The performance included six songs from Blunderbuss.
The studio version of "Sixteen Saltines" was released online via White's YouTube channel on March 13. The 7-inch vinyl single, which included a cover of U2's "Love Is Blindness" as its B-side, was released March 20. In observance of Record Store Day, Third Man Records released a 12" vinyl edition of the single whose B-side contained a playable etching of the record label's logo. In addition, a limited edition 12" vinyl containing blue liquid was released. The single peaked at 129 on the UK Singles Chart and 12 on the Billboard US Alternative Songs chart.
A playback of a vinyl copy of the album was held at London, England at County Hall on March 20, 2012. White attended the event, during which he was interviewed by the audience and the Mayor of Lambeth, Councillor Christiana Valcarcel.
.
On April 1, 2012, Third Man Records released 1000 helium balloons attached to flexi-disc copies of "Freedom at 21". Third Man Records described the stunt as "an experiment exploring non-traditional forms of record distribution and a way to get records in the hands of people who don't visit record shops". A video for the album's final single, a cover of Little Willie John's "I'm Shakin'", was released on October 10, 2012. The song became available for pre-order on October 16, and it was released digitally and on 7-inch vinyl on October 30. The single included the B-side "Blues on Two Trees".
Tour
On February 3, 2012, White announced performances at Sasquatch! Music Festival and Radio 1's Hackney Weekend via his website. On February 14, he announced additional performance dates as part of a solo tour consisting of concerts in Tennessee, Alabama, and Oklahoma. The tour began on March 10 with a concert at Track 29 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. On March 19, White announced additional concerts in North America and Europe. The tour also included performances in Australia and concluded at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. During the tour, White alternated between two backing bands, one all-female and one all-male. The tour included supporting acts Alabama Shakes, First Aid Kit, and Pokey LaFarge.White's April 27 concert at Webster Hall in New York City was streamed online as part of American Express Unstaged. Directed by Gary Oldman, the livestream gave viewers the choice to view the concert from a black-and-white shot, a balcony angle, or the director's cut. Viewers could submit pictures of themselves as a contribution to a digital mosaic.
The Grand Ole Opry gave White a framed blunderbuss as a gift after he sold out at the Ryman Auditorium two nights in a row.
Critical reception
Blunderbuss was met with widespread acclaim from music critics, receiving a score of 83 out of 100 on the aggregator site Metacritic, based on 44 reviews. The Washington Post called the album "restless, cranky and great, although weirdly inconsequential: less a statement of artistic purpose than a stellar collection of songs". The Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot described Blunderbuss as "an entertaining rollercoaster of a listen", and he remarked that the album contained "pulse-pounding story-telling". The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick stated that the album "crackles with life and energy", and he commented that White combines the influences of his previous musical projects "with a spirit of loose invention and the command of a veteran band leader". The A.V. Club's Steven Hyden commented that the album contains "at least five songs... that match the excellence of The White Stripes' best". In a review that called Blunderbuss "a purposeful success", Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal said that the album has "some of White's best pure songwriting yet, but no earth-cracking riffs".Spin's Steve Kandell remarked that a solo album freed White from restraints present on his other musical projects; he stated that "Blunderbuss is a surprisingly measured and grounded response, given the possibilities" and called the album "a mid-career stride". AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the album as more "emotionally direct" and "musically evasive" than White's previous work. He commented that this "dichotomy makes Blunderbuss a record that only seems richer with increased exposure". Billboard praised the album's "diversity and musical ambition" and described it as "familiar enough to please the faithful, adventurous enough to forge a new path forward and satisfying enough to make fans realize anew just how much White has been missed". Jerry Shriver of USA Today said that the album "aims wide and often hits home". Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone called its songs "brilliant" and described the album as White's "most expansive and masterful record since the White Stripes' 2003 classic, Elephant".
Ben Ratliff of The New York Times found several "great moments" in Blunderbuss but criticized the album for lacking "the sense of occasion, the strength of the gesture" present in White's previous musical projects. He viewed the "riffs, chord progressions, and dynamic shifts" as "less distinguished" than those of the White Stripes, and he remarked, "Few songs on Blunderbuss truly knock the wind out of you, as the White Stripes could". The Toronto Star called the album "the most conventional record White has made outside of the Raconteurs" and stated that it "maybe falls just a hair shy of the lofty expectations one might hold for a Jack White solo album".
Debate surrounding White's views toward women
The album drew mixed commentary on what it revealed about White's views toward women. In an article from Jessica Misener with The Atlantic, she stated that Blunderbuss "crystallizes White's longstanding issues with women". She commented that much of White's music depicts him responding with "itriol" to women "threatening his control" and that the lyrics of "Hypocritical Kiss" include "an instance of blatant manipulation". Regarding "Freedom at 21", she remarked: "White's dismissal of a 21st-century woman in Blunderbuss 'Freedom at 21' makes perfect sense. A modern-day woman, with her sexual freedom and iPhone, represents power and choice, things that White embraces in his own life. But she's come by this in a way that's not on his terms, so she's a villain." In a review of the album, Allison Stewerrt of The Washington Post said, "Hangers-on may be frequent targets, but women don't come off well, either: They're creatures of eternal falseness, apparently, who wear too much makeup and want to kill White's mother and send her to hell."Writing for The Guardian, Laura Barton disagreed with Misener's article, viewing the nature of White's lyrics as the result of "proximity rather than gender" and stating that other songs written by White contain "plenty examples of tenderness to counterbalance any venom". She commented, "It's undeniable that White's music is fired by the difference between male and female... But nowhere does he assert that the masculine is superior to the feminine, rather that there are differences to be celebrated." In an article for Slate, Lauren O'Neal also expressed disagreement with Misener's article. Citing White's treatment toward women in his personal life, she remarked that "White seems to be more enlightened than the average man", and she stated that the "Blunderbusss woman-heavy lineup is perhaps the most impressive of White’s bona fides." Both O'Neal and Barton cited examples of White's collaboration with women, for which Barton called White "a great champion of women in rock'n'roll".
In an interview for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis asked White about "Freedom at 21", which Petridis described as appearing to be a "protracted moan about feminism, that seems to be suggesting that White's life would have been easier if women just did what he told them to". In response, White asserted that the song was about modern attitudes toward technology: "The early telephones, the telegraph, you had to treat this technology with respect. You can write on the internet for the whole world, you can make comments, but there's no one telling you that's impolite or that's inappropriate." In another interview for The Guardian with Tim Lewis, White responded to accusations of misogyny: "I don't know where the hell people got that from me because I've done so much work in my life to promote female musicians and artists... I respect and I'm inspired by them so much."
Accolades
In 2012, "Sixteen Saltines" was nominated for Best Rock Video at the MTV Video Music Awards and Best Indie/Rock Video – International at the UK Music Video Awards. Blunderbuss was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Rock Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. "Freedom at 21" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song the same year. "I'm Shakin'" was nominated for Best Rock Performance and Best Music Video at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.Rolling Stone ranked Blunderbuss number three on its list of the best albums of 2012, saying that "every hypocritical kiss on the record hits like a hammer". The album was also included in the 2014 edition of the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
| Year | Ceremony | Nominee/work | Award | Result |
| 2012 | MTV Video Music Awards | "Sixteen Saltines" | Best Rock Video | |
| 2012 | UK Music Video Awards | "Sixteen Saltines" | Best Indie/Rock Video – International | |
| 2013 | Grammy Awards | Blunderbuss | Album of the Year | |
| 2013 | Grammy Awards | Blunderbuss | Best Rock Album | |
| 2013 | Grammy Awards | "Freedom at 21" | Best Rock Song | |
| 2014 | Grammy Awards | "I'm Shakin'" | Best Rock Performance | |
| 2014 | Grammy Awards | "I'm Shakin'" | Best Music Video |
Commercial performance
Blunderbuss performed well commercially. It was the first album generated by any of White's musical projects to debut at number one in the United States, with first week sales in the United States totaling 138,000. The album also debuted at number one in Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the Flanders region of Belgium. Blunderbuss sold 33,000 vinyl copies in its first year, making it the best-selling vinyl album of 2012.In 2012, the album was awarded a diamond certification from the Independent Music Companies Association, indicating at least 200,000 copies sold in Europe. On March 5, 2013, it was awarded gold status by the Recording Industry Association of America, indicating over 500,000 sales in the United States. The album was also certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association and the British Phonographic Industry, indicating sales of at least 35,000 in Australia and 100,000 in the United Kingdom. Music Canada awarded the album a platinum certification for selling at least 80,000 copies in Canada.
Track listing
Personnel
Adapted from the Blunderbuss liner notes.- Jack White – lead vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, bass guitar, drums, Rhodes, guitar case, clapping
- Ruby Amanfu – backing vocals
- Carla Azar – drums, maracas, percussion, shaker, clapping
- Emily Bowland – clarinet, bass clarinet
- Bryn Davies – upright bass, clapping
- Karen Elson – backing vocals
- Joey Glynn – upright bass
- Adam Hoskins – acoustic guitar
- Olivia Jean – clapping, drums, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
- Daru Jones – drums, tambourine
- Fats Kaplin – fiddle, mandolin, pedal steel
- Patrick Keeler – drums
- Ryan Koenig – backing vocals
- Pokey LaFarge – mandolin, backing vocals
- Jack Lawrence – bass guitar
- Laura Matula – backing vocals
- Jake Orrall – electric guitar
- Lillie Mae Rische – fiddle
- Brooke Waggoner – Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3, piano, Wurlitzer piano
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
The vinyl LP version of the record was pressed at United Record Pressing in Nashville, Tennessee. On April 16, Third Man Records streamed the album in its entirety on iTunes for free listening prior to its release. The Japanese edition of the album features "Machine Gun Silhouette" and a cover of U2's "Love Is Blindness" as bonus tracks. The latter song appears on the U2 tribute record AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered.| Region | Date | Format | Label |
| Australia | April 20, 2012 | Digital download | |
| New Zealand | April 20, 2012 | Digital download | |
| Austria | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Belgium | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Canada | April 23, 2012 | Digital download | |
| Denmark | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Finland | April 23, 2012 | ||
| France | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Greece | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Ireland | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Italy | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Netherlands | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Norway | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Poland | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Portugal | April 23, 2012 | ||
| South Korea | April 23, 2012 | Digital download | |
| Spain | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Sweden | April 23, 2012 | ||
| Switzerland | April 23, 2012 | ||
| United Kingdom | April 23, 2012 | ||
| United States | April 23, 2012 | Digital download | |
| Australia | April 24, 2012 | ||
| Canada | April 24, 2012 | ||
| Japan | April 24, 2012 | ||
| New Zealand | April 24, 2012 | ||
| South Korea | April 24, 2012 | ||
| United States | April 24, 2012 | ||
| Japan | April 25, 2012 | Digital download |