Boarding House Reach

Boarding House Reach

by Jack White
Boarding House Reach

Boarding House Reach

by Jack White

CD(Digi-Pak)

$16.99 
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Overview

Due to his affection for prewar music and myths, Jack White often gets pigeonholed as a blues-rock revivalist -- an assessment that isn't so much wrong as it is incomplete. Even in the earliest days of the White Stripes, White limited his aural palette with deliberate zeal, a practice he sustained through the Stripes as well as his first two solo albums. Boarding House Reach is where he expands his horizons and that discipline begins to fracture, and quite intentionally so. "Connected by Love" -- the album's opening track and first single -- is a rousing bit of arena rock and the only cut that could truly have appeared on either Blunderbuss or Lazaretto. Once that song draws to a close, White dives into a moody electronic meditation called "Why Walk a Dog?" -- an oddity that's quickly eclipsed by the hard funk of "Corporation," a song that marks the third different sound in as many tracks. Things get progressively stranger from this point forward. Recitations commingle with raps, gurgling synthesizers tangle with blues piano, operatic overdubs are paired with fuzz guitars, sci-fi send-ups meet their match with short stories. Every moment suggests that White is kicking against the pricks, desperate to be seen as a modern rock artist, not a fusty throwback. While his attempt at redefinition is a success -- there's no question that this is the work of an artist willing to take risks -- it's an open question whether Boarding House Reach succeeds as an album. Its diffuse nature is enthralling, but it also means that the record has a halting momentum -- a perhaps inevitable byproduct of a musician eager to drive himself into the ditch. Another odd element of Boarding House Reach is how, despite his thirst to get weird, White is by nature a very regimented artist who has a desire to have everything in its right place. "Corporation" and "Ice Station Zebra," the two funkiest numbers here, illustrate this with their precise grooves, but even the self-consciously weird interludes show this same level of exactitude. While that keeps Boarding House Reach somewhat in a straitjacket, it also makes it a fascinating listen, because it's a document of a control freak anxious to get loose. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date: 03/23/2018
Label: Columbia / Sony Music / Third Man Records
UPC: 0190758189321
Rank: 179137

Tracks

  1. Connected by Love
  2. Why Walk a Dog?
  3. Corporation
  4. Abulia and Akrasia
  5. Hypermisophoniac
  6. Ice Station Zebra
  7. Over and Over and Over
  8. Everything You've Ever Learned
  9. Respect Commander
  10. Ezmerelda Steals the Show
  11. Get in the Mind Shaft
  12. What's Done Is Done
  13. Humoresque

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jack White   Primary Artist,Bass,Drums,Organ,Piano,Guitar,Vocals,Tambourine,Synthesizer,Drums (Electric),Electronic Drums,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric),Synthesizer Voices
Neal Evans   Synthesizer,Organ (Hammond),Moog Synthesizer,Bass,Piano
Ann McCrary   Vocals (Background)
Keith Smith   Trumpet
Fats Kaplin   Fiddle
Carla Azar   Drums,Drums (Electric),Electronic Drums
Joshua Gillis   Guitar (Acoustic)
Esther Rose   Vocals (Background)
DJ Harrison   Synthesizer,Viola Nordestina
Anthony Brewster   Synthesizer,Organ (Hammond),Synthesizer Strings
Neon Phoenix   Bass
Gianluca Braccio Montone   Sampled Piano
Bobby Allende   Drums,Congas,Percussion,Tambourine
Justin Poree   Udu,Cuica,Congas,Shaker,Berimbau,Percussion
Charlotte Kemp Muhl   Bass,6-String Bass,Bass (Electric)
Louis Cato   Bass,Drums,Drums (Electric),Electronic Drums,Guitar (Acoustic)
Quincy McCrary   Piano,Synthesizer
Dominic Davis   Bass (Upright)
Ian Montone   Sampled Piano
C.W. Stoneking   Spoken Word
Brooke Waggoner   Piano
Daru Jones   Drums
Justin Carpenter   Trombone
Neil Konouchi   Tuba
Regina McCrary   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Antonin Dvorak   Composer
Ben Schmitz   Assistant
Tristan McNatt   Design,Art Direction
Grant Valentine   Assistant
Caitlin Parker   Design,Art Direction
Bob Ludwig   Mastering
Bill Skibbe   Mixing,Engineer
Chandler Harrod   Assistant
Joshua V. Smith   Mixing,Engineer,Assistant
Todd Monfalcone   Engineer
Howard Johnson   Composer
Jack White   Design,Mixing,Arranger,Composer,Engineer,Producer,Art Direction,Video Synthesiser
Vance Powell   Engineer
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