Jack White, aka Detroit’s best-ever axe melter (sorry Bob Seger), has announced that his new solo album Boarding House Reach will be dropping on March 23 via Third Man Records/Columbia Records. It’ll be his third full-length solo release to date, and, after 2014’s Lazaretto, his first in nearly four years.
All the big time media outlets are still awash with excitement over the news, which was announced earlier last week. NPR’s Bob Boilen, for example, emphatically claimed that the album’s new single, “Connected by Love,” is “a blend of old guitar blues on the edge of rock’s horizon.”
I’m not sure about that, but I will say that I listened to “Respect Commander” (which is another track off the new album), and it was probably the best shit I’ve heard since Curt Smith’s Soul on Board.
Word is that Jack holed himself up for awhile in a run-down Nashville apartment to cut the demo for the record, and then went on to produce it himself (as he typically does) after collaborating with the likes of Louis Cato (Beyoncé, John Legend, Mariah Carey), NeonPhoenix (Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z), and Daru Jones (Nas, Talib Kweli). The end product, according to prophets of the album-bearing community, is a concoction of “terrain-crunching rock ‘n’ roll, electro and hard funk, proto punk, hip hop, and gospel blues.”
Shit. If I was the PR guy for that, I think I’d have just saved myself some hassle and said it’s going to be “a mixture of every musical genre on planet earth.”
In any regard, White has also announced that an exclusive version of the album will be available as part of Third Man Records’ Vault Package #35. For the uninitiated, the Third Man Vault is basically a subscription service where members receive all sorts of cool, rare, limited, and otherwise restricted shit that other “normal” people don’t have access to.
The Boarding House Reach package will include the LP’s only vinyl variation, which will come in the form of a 180-gram blue and black swirl that was pressed at Detroit’s Third Man Pressing.
Other Vault Package goodies will include:
• Limited cover art of White’s face printed on holographic paper
Exclusive 12” x 24” inserts with complete album lyrics
• 7” two-song demos with early cuts of “Connected By Love” and “Why Walk a Dog?”
• Three exclusive photos that were shot during BHR recording sessions at N.Y’s Sear Sound and L.A.’s Capitol Studios
• Foil-stamped copies of Jack White poetry printed on black, white, and blue metallic paper
• A custom 2018 Third Man Records Challenge Coin that doubles as a 45 adaptor
Vault subscriptions for Boarding House Reach will be cut off after January 31, so make sure to sign up here BEFORE IT”S TOO LATE!
Also, be sure to check out the album tracks “Connected by Love” and “Respect Commander,” which you can find cozily embedded below.
Oh, and one last thing. In celebration of the forthcoming album, White has ALSO announced a number of upcoming festival performances, including headline shows at the Boston Calling festival (May 25-27), Atlanta’s Shaky Knees Festival (May 4-6), and New York’s Governor’s Ball Festival (June 1-3). Additional dates and venues will be announced soon, too, so be sure to keep an eye out for those.
Boarding House Reach tracklisting:
01. Connected By Love
02. Why Walk A Dog?
03. Corporation
04. Abulia and Akrasia
05. Hypermisophoniac
06. Ice Station Zebra
07. Over and Over and Over
08. Everything You’ve Ever Learned
09. Respect Commander
10. Ezmerelda Steals The Show
11. Get In The Mind Shaft
12. What’s Done Is Done
13. Humoresque
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