I date these based on the listen date, not the review date, which is why this 6/10 post can assert that Jack White fucking RULED at Bonnaroo. A soaring, lacerating show, equal parts bluesman gravitas and shitkicking garagerock energy, it featured plenty of songs off this album.
Which is why its confounding that this album is so...unexciting. It's good, full of clever turns, ups and downs, big moments heavy and light. But there's no particular spark, no particular liveness, and no particular listening experience takes shape.
The problem is that this doesn't commit to being a riff-driven garage rock album (White is credited with playing electric guitar on only five of the eleven tracks), doesn't commit to being a country rock album, and doesn't pull off doing both (facemelting riffs shatter any burgeoning sense of drifting prairie peace; backing vocals from Ruby Amanfu and Lily Mae crush any accrued thisfuckingrocks energy every time they wander in, track sequencing makes no attempt at transitions).
The problem isn't that this doesn't pick a genre, it's that it doesn't find any vision that encompasses the ones it dabbles in, and you end up with a pastiche that shows a surprising, disappointing lack of showmanship 2.5/5
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