Entering Heaven Alive - Jack White: Review
Jack White
really needs no introduction. He's a Detroit guitarist, singer and songwriter who made a name for himself as a member of The White Stripes and has since found success with his solo work as well as bands like The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. Entering Heaven Alive is his second album of 2022 and was billed as the more reserved counter-part to Fear Of The Dawn.
Review by Lav:
I'm obsessed with Jack White that's no secret. While I've found something to enjoy in pretty much all of his projects I can't say that his solo work is one of my favorite ventures of his. Though I don't think he has a BAD solo album I also can't say that any of his 5 solo projects are among my absolute favorite moments of his career. That includes Fear Of The Dawn which came out earlier this year and featured many bold experimentations that didn't really translate with me, as well as this album Entering Heaven Alive which takes a much more digestible sonic approach but comes out the other side pretty inconsistent.
As usual let's take the singles first because they're a good indicator of my mixed feelings on the album. Love Is Selfish is a song I've gone back and forth on since it first released because I wasn't really all that impressed with it at first but I also couldn't stop thinking about it. Compositionally it plays a pretty simple trick that Jack White basically uses as a platform to talk about how great love is even when it sometimes doesn't feel that way. Being in the context of the first half of the album both helps to reinforce the message but also shows how it could be portrayed better on other songs. If I Die Tomorrow is a decent ballad that certainly reaches beyond its simple title and manages to achieve a quite dramatic and memorable hook. The only real issue I have with the song is the bridge which is one of the most randomly awful to listen to moments on the entire album.
I like the way the album kicks off and ends quite a bit. Opening song A Tip From You To Me is easily the best track here and it sees Jack confronting his own loneliness and how much he contributes to it. The combination of great melodies with Jack's spot-on vocal performance won me over immediately. A Madman From Manhattan is a similarly standout moment on the record that features the most narratively complex story on the album by far. While I won't spoil what actually unfolds I will say it's an interesting song and the swanky way that Jack delivers it is pretty irresistible. Finally, I'll say I quite enjoy All Along The Way which is a purely guitar-driven ballad for most of its runtime but waits until just the right moment to introduce this array of dusty instrumentation that finishes the journey of the song perfectly.
I sort of like a pair of tracks that I'll refer to as the "tree songs" because they both deploy very different metaphors surrounding the idea of a tree. Queen Of The Bees is one of those weird songs that always pop up on Jack White albums where I have no idea what he's talking about or what sound he's going for. The more I listened to it though the more it warmed on me because it's clearly very self-aware of just how silly it sounds. A Tree On Fire Within is much more serious by comparison but the mix does a really good job of balancing all the instrumentation and allowing pretty much every moment to have some impact. But I also can't say there's anything on the song that is necessarily blowing me away despite that great sound.
The record doesn't have a whole ton of "duds" conventionally speaking, Please God, Don't Tell Anyone being the biggest example as I can't remember anything about it or think of anything I could even say about it. Help me Along is better and at the very least really strongly reminds me of someone, that someone being Paul McCartney. The only real dud is I've Got You Surrounded which clearly has instrumentation that is meant to deliver a kind of slinky jazz thing and paint Jack with as much charisma as possible as a vocalist. The problem is that the ugly garish guitars on the song absolutely ruin the effect. I can imagine a version of this song that I like more but as it is I just don't think it can pull off what it's going for.
Much like his album earlier this year, I like Entering Heaven Alive but I don't love it. The fundamentals Jack has in his back pocket keep him from ever really failing when it comes to these classic ballad type songs but there also aren't many moments where he really soars. The best tracks here are the ones that only Jack White could have written but in terms of the rest of the bunch, they're a bit inconsistent. 6/10
This cover is really cool. I love the contrast of the image with the streaks going across that give it depth and makes your eye follow them straight to the subject. THe subject is slightly an an angle which breaks up the usual straight ad compleyely centered subject we see in most covers like this. There could be some type of branding to bring it all together and make it more than just an image but overall it's still really nice. It might not be the first album you pick up because of the cover but it's something that is very nice aesthetically. 7.5/10
For more rock check out my review of Black Midi's Hellfire here
