Though The White Stripes broke up about a year ago, fans of the band could take solace in the fact that between The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, and collaborative projects like last year’s Rome, it would be unlikely that we would have to wait too long for more Jack White material. And, with so many avenues to choose from, the variety of the material is one of the great pleasures we get from White, as it is always as likely that he could scorch us with a rocker as it is that he will lull us with some acoustic-based blues.
“Love Interruption” manages to hit both ends of the spectrum, with the melody (a duet with an Ruby Amanfu) drawing from similar territory that we saw White singing on Rome, but with lyrics that are as cutting as the knife about which he sings. For every poetic mention that White introduces about love, he flips the metaphor on its head, treading a thin line between evocative and gruesome. Eventually, White settles on two notions worth repeating: he wants love to “change his friends to enemies” and that he won’t let love “disrupt, corrupt, or interrupt” him. Simple words not lacking teeth.
Of his upcoming solo album, White says “I’ve put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name. These songs were written from scratch, had nothing to do with anyone or anything else but my own expression, my own colors on my own canvas.” Luckily, the colors of White’s canvas are vivid, brutal, uncompromising, and affecting. “Love Interruption” is a stellar introduction to an album that hopefully is just as worthy of Jack White’s name, which both him and his audience hold in such high regard.
