Rock’n’roll superstar Jack White has released a new album. It’s actually his second year. It’s called “Entering Heaven With Life.” Music writer Al Shipley shared his thoughts on the new album with us. He says it’s more acoustic than Jack White’s previous release, “Fear Of The Dawn,” and that is part of its charm. He told us about some outstanding songs.
AL SHIPLEY: So “If I Die Tomorrow” immediately caught my attention, because it is wearing a melotron, a kind of early synthesizer invented in the 1960s, where the keys on the keyboard trigger, like a magnetic tape of tapes. instruments. As if before they had these computerized synthesizers, this was one of the first examples. And it was most famous in The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever.
(SOUNDBITE OF JACK WHITE SONG, “IF I DIE TOMORROW”)
SHIPLEY: I think the big attraction of what Jack White does is that he is one of the greatest modern rock stars who wants to collect old instruments and put all that cool stuff on the record. So the kind of weird, spooky flute sound that isn’t really the flute in If I Die Tomorrow, you know, it’s like Strawberry Fields Forever, but it’s also kind of a special thing. In this song, he puts it in a different vibe.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IF I DIE TOMORROW”)
JACK WHITE: (Singing) So if I die tomorrow, promise you will go, OK, OK.
SHIPLEY: You know, it’s one of the most cinematic songs on the album that he talks about, for example, if I die tomorrow, if my mother cries out of sadness, all those things and, you know, no, I don’t know if it’s the guy who he’s in his forties and thinks about mortality, whether it’s just a character element or something. But it has the kind of noir to it that it sometimes does where it’s like – him a bit – it’s almost like in a black and white movie.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IF I DIE TOMORROW”)
WHITE: (Singing) I hate to think about it. So it’s worth shouting it out. And if you could help me, it would mean a lot to my peace of mind. And her heart is concerned, and since I was a newborn baby, I have dismissed that worry for the sake of my life.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I HAVE ENROLLED YOU (IN MY LOVE)”)
WHITE: (Singing) I surrounded you. I have surrounded you with my love. You don’t know me girl?
SHIPLEY: So “I’ve Got You Surrounded (With My Love)” is the only song that sounds like it could be on one of those albums. It could have been on “Fear Of The Dawn” or “Entering Heaven Alive” because it still has a screeching, heavily processed electric guitar that does a lot in “Fear Of The Dawn”. But it’s still like a full band playing restrained and jazz. For example, it never explodes like the old White Stripes song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I HAVE ENROUNDED YOU (WITH MY LOVE)”)
WHITE: (Singing) We have to find a neutral place and remember it now as the feelings reciprocate. appeals to.
SHIPLEY: “Taking Me Back (Gently)” is a kind of a repeat of a song from “Fear Of The Dawn”.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TAKING ME (DELICATE)”)
WHITE: (Singing) When you pull out the numbers and pull all the triggers, well, you take me back. Yes, you are taking me back. When you listen to mystics at picnics, you take me back. You’re taking me back.
SHIPLEY: It’s almost like Dixieland’s jazz style. So it’s fun to hear him take a song that is really loud and really, one of the crazier songs from “Fear Of The Dawn” and then turn it into a completely different thing. For example, he did an acoustic record – it was 1998-2016 – a compilation a few years ago, and he had all these acoustic songs from his entire career. And sometimes the White Stripes recorded a loud version of the song and – or the Raconteurs made a loud version of the song. And then they did this acoustic version. So it’s fun to hear him guess which songs work in both modes. And this one feels almost campy compared to the second “Taking Me Back”, but it’s a nice way to end the album.
MARTIN: It was the music writer Al Shipley who talked about Jack White’s new album “Entering Heaven Alive.” It is over now.
(SOUNDBITE OF JACK WHITE SONG, “TAKING ME BACK (DELICATE)”) Transcription provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
