Jack White's own Fear of the Dawn


...and at the complete other end of the spectrum of blue, we have the 752th thing Third Man Records published. Steady as she goes, i don't dislike anything Jack White has done, i'm just not a total fangirlmanhobbit. Difficult vintage guitars are a fun gimmick, liking Son House is a thing we should all do, his impromptu SNL performance was as awesome as everyone says, pasty white sun-fearing excessively off-kilter hipster rock is totally at home in Bottleville, i think its just that the ironic anti-celebrity celebrity of jazz-hands "Jack White" so vastly overshadows his actual music ALL THE TIME, so i just go "meh." 

I'm a little bit apprehensive about calling "in true DIY spirit" when that spirit involves your own personal multi-million dollar pressing plant, but it is Easter weekend so i had no choice but to throw the Depeche Mode reference in there. Afraid of the Dawn is a strange concept in English or Greek, here's hoping it adds up to something a bit more interesting than "i like the night life, baby." Time to enjoy the mashup of loud guitars, glitchtastrophic electro-noodling, and those patented Jack White screamo vocals. 

And wowzers that's an album. Some normal Jack White stuff, a real Blues soliloquy, a couple legit la tr e 60s pop songs, Q-tip is here for whatever reason. From the nastiest fuzz and electronic squealing to some of the most lusciously divine cleans i've ever heard, i can't tell if he's singing love songs to the moon or if he's afraid the sun won't actually come back up in the morning (i'm leaning to the latter at the moment), it's an amazing album. A couple moments of silliness, but all in all a superb offering from the leading proponent of the record renaissance. 

Critics are gonna tell you he's embraced the dark side of overdubs and layering like this is a poorly tethered yet moderately pretentious carnival ride, but lemme double check, yep it's Jack White, and he's pretty good at it. 

What have we learned? Well, i think it's safe to say that bands taking back full control of their output can be phenomenal. Granted, only the multi-platinum superstar artists are capable of actually doing it at the moment, but in spite of having to employ their own legions of lawyers and creatives and factory workers, i think there's a glimmer of hope. There's still the pesky problem of getting people back into enjoying the visceral listening experience, but that's a much harder nut to crack. Are we resurrecting vinyl? Maybe, but that's really just a happy side effect of artists regaining control of their art. Win-win, for me at least. Well, that was fun. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, i've got half an acre of overgrown mulberry trees to cut down. 'Til next time, cheers.

Conclusion

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 4 Seasons - The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette

Image
This might be my longest  album review ever. But i swear a couple times, so it's worth the read ;) How could i possibly mention Jefferson Airplane, The 4 Seasons, and Frank Zappa in the same context? Zappa said "this is rediculous" and a few years later The 4 Seasons said "you know what, Frank is right. This IS ridiculous." To which Jefferson Airplane said, "Oh. Ok. Got it." The real question is: which one is the most transgressive? Zappa said stop fighting, you look like idiots. Jefferson Airplane said i guess if love and community is a bad thing, then sure we're criminals and we'd be happy to move out into the fields and live peaceful lives without your garbage, let us go already. The 4 Seasons said hold my champagne for a moment. In 1969, The 4 Seasons released the single most ironic, acidic, extravagant, and downright befuddling album ever created, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. Zappa was accused of writing "shitty doo-w
Read more

Welcome to my blog, and my record collection.

This is a blog about my love of listening to albums. It started off as a nightly perusal of my dad's record collection (which sadly became mine) on my personal facebook page. Over the last two months it has become quite an enjoyable process of simply ranting about what i think is a real art form, the album. It needs a more permanent home. Some of my reviews are positive, some negative. They might not be what you expect from album reviews, but i hope you at least find them entertaining. For the most part i do very little research, and they tend to be train of thought reactions rather than calculated essays. If nothing else, know that i'm really listening to them and whether they are amazing or abysmal i want you to go listen to them too.  I'll start migrating the 60+ i've written so far over here in the next few days, and hopefully get to the point where i just start writing them here. I'd probably even take suggestions if you're just dying to know my tho
Read more

Pat Benatar - Seven The Hard Way

Image
I don't know about you, but i love Pat Benatar. Yes, that's also her debut album with the single most underrated song in the universe (My Clone Sleeps Alone) in the background, but that's just a generic non-self-titled debut album. We're jumping ahead to her 6th album, Seven The Hard Way, because that, ladies and gentle germs, is how you kalaidescope a concept. Not one, not two, not three, but 4 protien-packed layers to this metaphor. You don't really need to know the overly complicated rules of Craps to know that A) it's gambling, B) "the hard way" refers to rolling doubles, so good luck rolling two 3.5s, and C) you're going to lose, one way or another. It's a joke, but more importantly, it's Pat Benatar and the roll out is Sex As A Weapon, so the innuendo is not intended to be subtle. Wait wait wait, that's only 3, Bottle, where's 4? You're right, last but not least, side B opens with Seven Rooms of Gloom, a Holland-Dozier-Hol
Read more