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Apr 26, 2012Contradictions are nothing new for Jack White but he's never been as emotionally direct as he is here, nor has he been as musically evasive, and that dichotomy makes Blunderbuss a record that only seems richer with increased exposure.
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Apr 23, 2012It's got some of his best pure songwriting yet, but no earth-cracking riffs. Still, as a treatise on loss and its schizophrenic aftermath, Blunderbuss is a purposeful success.
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UncutApr 17, 2012It's a surly, spiky piece of work, on which the few shafts of sweetness are soon soured with guilt, recrimination and reproach. [May 2012, p.66]
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Apr 23, 2012Despite all the critics desperately wanting White to continue being our modern-day rock savior, the record can't have it both ways [being both a pointed statement about the pains of a break up and a collection of daring, wacky and eccentric songs] -although it's still a blast to hear it try.
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MojoApr 19, 2012While Blunderbuss appears to be definite off-loading of emotional baggage, it also feels like a move toward rebirth. [May 2012, p.80]
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Q MagazineApr 13, 2012A concentrated shot of charisma, undiluted and intoxicating. [May 2012, p.92]
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Apr 24, 2012This is the side of Jack White III he's happy to show the world right now, and it's absolutely fascinating to behold.
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Apr 24, 2012Blunderbuss gets stranger and more fascinating the closer you listen.
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Apr 19, 2012Lovelorn, honest, poignant and emotional in the best way imaginable.
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Apr 25, 2012Somewhere along the way, though, the emotions fail to match up, or the song structures that always sound so familiar fail to separate themselves from what's come before.
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Apr 19, 2012Blunderbuss is White at his most strange, contradictory and unfathomable, and therefore at his best.
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Apr 25, 2012This is a hard, dark, inventive record that strongly suggests that give or take an imaginary sister and some fiddles, Jack White is pretty much the same boy we've always known.
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Apr 24, 2012There are at least five songs on Blunderbuss that match the excellence of The White Stripes' best, and on the whole the album performs the tricky task of updating White's musical aesthetic without euthanizing its primal nature.
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Apr 23, 2012Nominal solo debut notwithstanding, Blunderbuss is the sound of a mid-career stride.
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Apr 24, 2012At the end of the day, White's still an enigma, and so is Blunderbuss, its mysteries unfolding in odd ways when you least expect it.
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Apr 24, 2012He's a little scatterbrained on Blunderbuss, as if he's still shaking up his past to move forward into the future, and as a result, Jack White represents everything Jack White has already accomplished.
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Apr 23, 2012Driven by demons and fired by fury, 'Blunderbuss' is a turbulent insight into one man's wrath - but it rocks. Hard.
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Apr 13, 2012There's a certain Opryland jam-session charm to it all, but Blunderbuss lacks the electric jolt that made previous outfits the White Stripes and the Dead Weather so exciting.
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Apr 23, 2012Blunderbuss feel satisfying, but not astoundingly progressive. It's a solo debut that can be interpreted in two ways, with White either easing his way into a new template or putting window dressing on the same old ideas.
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Apr 24, 2012There's no avoiding the fact 'Blunderbuss' is an album for those already long inducted into the church of Jack White.
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Apr 16, 2012Blunderbuss has a special casualness to it, thanks to White surrounding himself with a coterie of Nashville locals able to take him where he wants to go. The destination in question may very well be back to the early '70s, where country- and blues-tinged crossover records captivated America's post-Vietnam psyche.
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Apr 27, 2012Perhaps his greatest record.
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Apr 19, 2012Thankfully, there are just enough flashes of brilliance to save it, even if much of the album comes across as a really expensive demo.
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Apr 24, 2012It's quite good. It just feels like it should be-and wants to be-better.
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Apr 23, 2012Yet another reliably great outing, full of intriguing plot developments, yet in faithful keeping with White's previous output.
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Apr 24, 2012It's his freest record, musically speaking, and in its bloodstained lyrics, which run the gamut from cautionary to vindictive to self-loathing, it opens up a side of White that previously has been impenetrable, wrapped up in his own self-mythologizing persona as he was.
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MagnetJun 19, 2012Is White's nonchalant spectrum dabbling [found throughout the album] as interesting as the myriad variables of his own quirky sound? Eh, not quite. [No.88 p.60]
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Apr 20, 2012On Blunderbuss, he's stumbled into some nasty business. These are songs of ruthless temptresses and treacherous men, of uncontrollable desire and unbearable guilt.
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Apr 25, 2012The album is brimming with fabulously skewed turns of phrase that make sense from different angles, as White's protagonists wrestle with what it means to be alternately besotted and gutted.
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Apr 23, 2012Few songs on "Blunderbuss" truly knock the wind out of you, as the White Stripes could - even with riffs that were fragmentary, simple or borrowed. This is a songwriter's record, and a kind of orchestrator's record; there's also a new overall vehemence in the lyrics, hammering on dishonesty, jealousy, immorality.
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May 10, 2012He's written better songs and told better stories, but Blunderbuss lends rare perspective on a man who generally lets image speak for him.
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Apr 18, 2012He still swaggers with the best of them.
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Apr 26, 2012The punchy songs and spontaneous performances are contagious in their jittery energy.
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Apr 24, 2012Familiar yet thrilling, Blunderbuss is a masterful introduction to a man we've known all along.
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Apr 25, 2012Blunderbuss is a quiet album that that doesn't yearn, instead unfolding slowly, from an artist known for his stark music and desperately longing lyrics.
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Apr 30, 2012"Blunderbuss" is, quite simply, a marvelous rock album.
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May 7, 2012Blunderbuss is good, damn good, and its' few missteps unthinking.
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Apr 13, 2012From its raucous, raw-edged opening salvo to the softer, weirder, ruminative closing tracks, Blunderbuss crackles with life and energy, hauling roots rock out of the dusty museum and into the dazzling light of the modern day.
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Apr 17, 2012His most compelling collection of songs in years.
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Apr 13, 2012Blunderbuss isn't just (arguably) the best album of the year so far, it opens up a whole new world for him.
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Apr 23, 2012Blunderbuss does, at times approach his finest work. But it doesn't do anything he hasn't already done.
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Apr 24, 2012It makes for an entertaining rollercoaster of a listen.
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Apr 18, 2012'Blunderbuss'' weaknesses are diminished by moments of sheer greatness.
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May 30, 2012White's nominal solo debut is as striking sonically as any album he's ever authorized.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 158 out of 178
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Mixed: 17 out of 178
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Negative: 3 out of 178
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Apr 24, 2012
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Apr 24, 2012
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Feb 17, 2013