Back With Yet Another Uncreative Single, It's Time Jack White Took A Break

There was once a time, not so long ago, that people actually cared what Jack White did. If you missed the early 2000s garage rock revival then this might even come as a shock. Surely the Dead Weather drummer and Raconteurs co-star doesn’t actually have anything decent to his name other than the plodding ‘Steady As She Goes’ and underappreciated ‘Treat Me Like Your Mother’?

Indeed as the stuttering new Dead Weather single ‘Die By The Drop’ goes to show, this Detroit born guitarist has overstretched himself to the point of tedium. Since 1999 in fact White has released nine albums, a staggeringly productive figure that doesn’t account for the forthcoming ‘Sea Of Cowards’ from Dead Weather, his work on the ‘Cold Mountain OST’ and numerous collaborative solo efforts.

Nevertheless even the kindest of critics would say that quality control on these projects has been variable and those with a more honest outlook would perhaps state that Jack has promiscuously dipped his fingers in enough pies to make Aunt Bessie seem virginal in comparison.

What next for the White Stripes man then? Well after the solo album, a Jay-Z rock-rap single and rumours of a joint LP with punk warlord, Phil Lin then this writer would humbly suggest a holiday. Ideally to a place where a recording studios are seen as the work witchcraft and the acoustic guitar is Satan’s calling card.

Just to be clear this is not a blog designed to get the Meg and Jack back together. A decade in the music industry should afford any artist the right to make their own creative decisions and at any rate, the two piece band format is clearly a restrictive habit not helped by the duo’s penchant for recording on pre-digital equipment.

Necessity calls, though, for a change in White’s release schedule. Realistically he is well on course to rival the output of Lennon/McCartney in terms of a ‘records to years’ ratio but in that song-writing partnership there were two greats churning out the hits. The key figures Jack has to lean upon are Brendan Benson (George) and Alison Mosshart (Yoko).

Could it really hurt the guitar god to take a year out from the hectic circus that surrounds him and concentrate on building a selection of 10 or so tracks to represent his musical stylings in the best possible light?