To say that a good chunk of rock music currently exists within a post-Jack White paradigm could easily be called a case of gross overgeneralization or pretentiously lazy journalism, but one thing it couldn’t be considered is a blind understatement.
It’s been thirteen years since the White Stripes first hit the surface, and ten since Michel Gondry pulled them out of the water with his video for ‘Fell In Love With A Girl‘. Since then there has been no shortage of white boy blues-garage balladry sprouting up in tour towns all over, and given the weight of his influence before and after the band’s eventual dissolution, it always seemed like it was only a matter of time before even White himself would be forced to step out from under his own shadow.
That time has finally come in the form of ‘Love Interruption‘, the new single from his forthcoming solo album ‘Blunderbuss‘, which is due out in late April. The song is a sparse and breezy episode of empty air acoustics, where a few simple strums of the guitar are given dimension by subtle swirls of clarinet and electric piano.
White’s distinctly familiar voice is the undeniable center of the arrangement, but his simple man delivery is blanketed by the full-bodied brood of backup vocalist Ruby Amanfu, whose mere presence rightfully keeps the tune from turning too much into one man’s desperate plea for absolution.
The lyrics are exactly what you would expect from White at this stage; a concise and clever meditation on the longing that comes with loneliness, albeit with a darkened twist that is as cynical as it is romantic. Not just anyone could have you feeling a sense of empowerment while singing along to lines about killing your own mother and turning all of your friends into enemies, but White pulls it off here, particularly when the been-burned-before defiance of the chorus becomes more and more redemptive with each repetition.
The end result is a bit low-key for a sneak peak to a highly anticipated album, but that could very well be the point.
White’s time has already come; perhaps now he is finally figuring out what to do with it.