Boarding House Reach

Why it matters

Jack White locked himself in a New York studio with drum machines and cheap synths and came out with the most deliberately fractured, un-bluesy record of his career.

"Corporation" is the proof: nearly six minutes built on a taunting funk groove, White hollering about starting a business while the track keeps threatening to derail itself. "Ice Station Zebra" has him half-rapping over piano and hand claps, and "Get In the Mind Shaft" opens as a spoken childhood memory before a synth swallows it whole. None of it flows the way a White Stripes song flows, and that friction is the point — he's testing whether his instincts survive outside the guitar-and-drums box that made him famous. The gamble doesn't always land, but a man this comfortable choosing discomfort is worth hearing think out loud.

Listen

Tracklist

1. 01Connected By Love4:38
2. 02Why Walk a Dog?2:29
3. 03Corporation5:39
4. 04Abulia and Akrasia1:28
5. 05Hypermisophoniac3:34
6. 06Ice Station Zebra4:00
7. 07Over and Over and Over3:36
8. 08Everything You've Ever Learned2:13
9. 09Respect Commander4:33
10. 10Ezmerelda Steals the Show1:43
11. 11Get In the Mind Shaft4:13
12. 12What's Done is Done2:54
13. 13Humoresque3:11