摇滚怪杰 (2012)

Blunderbuss is the debut solo studio album by American musician Jack White. It was released in digital and physical formats beginning April 23, 2012, through Third Man Records, in association with XL Recordings and Columbia Records. Written almost entirely by White, the album was recorded and produced by him at Third Man Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Various musical styles appear throughout, including blues rock, folk, and country soul.

The album received positive reviews from music critics, who praised White's ambitious songwriting and often compared the record favorably to his work for the White Stripes. It debuted at number one in five countries and reached the top 10 in ten other countries. It was certified platinum in Canada and gold by record industry trade groups internationally. The album was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Rock Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, while the single "Freedom at 21" was nominated for Best Rock Song. In addition, the single "I'm Shakin'" received a nomination for Best Rock Performance at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.

The lead single from Blunderbuss, "Love Interruption", was released on January 30, 2012, via White's website. The single "Sixteen Saltines" was uploaded to White's YouTube channel on March 13, and seven days later, the song was released as the second single via 7-inch vinyl with a cover of U2's "Love Is Blindness" as its B-side. On April 1, Third Man Records released the album's third single, "Freedom at 21", by attaching flexi disc copies of the song to 1000 helium balloons. A music video for the fourth and final single, a cover of Little Willie John's "I'm Shakin'", was released on October 10, and twenty days later, the single was released digitally and via 7-inch vinyl with the B-side "Blues on Two Trees".

Background and recording

Prior to the creation of Blunderbuss, Jack had been a member of the duo the White Stripes along with drummer Meg White. In 2007, the band went on a tour after releasing their sixth studio album Icky Thump. In the midst of the tour, the band canceled its United States tour dates, citing Meg's struggle with acute anxiety; shortly afterwards, the White Stripes canceled the remainder of the 2007 tour dates. The duo then went on a hiatus that ended in their breakup in 2011. Jack White worked on various other projects during this period. In 2008, the Raconteurs, of which White was a member, released their second studio album, Consolers of the Lonely. Rock supergroup the Dead Weather, another band that included White, released their debut studio album Horehound in 2009 and its successor Sea of Cowards in 2010. In addition, White produced Wanda Jackson's thirtieth studio album The Party Ain't Over (2011). In June 2011, White and his wife Karen Elson, who provided backing vocals for Blunderbuss, announced their intention to divorce and subsequently held a divorce party.

Produced at Third Man Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, Blunderbuss has its roots in White's recordings with several artists under his record label Third Man Records, including Tom Jones and Wanda Jackson. During these recordings, White learned to direct groups with as many as 12 people, more than he had directed under any of his previous musical projects. He started recording his own songs as a result of Wu-Tang Clan member RZA's last-minute cancellation of his attendance of a recording session with White. Reluctant to send away the musicians who had shown up for the session, White decided to use them to record some of his songs. He did not initially intend to create an album, though he found that after recording "six or seven songs it started to click that it was all becoming something".

White noted that directing hired musicians rather than working with a band afforded him several advantages; in the latter case he could not "tell other people what to play", whereas in the former case he "could ask people to play something" and then "go somewhere else and work on another part", thus enabling him to write "on the spot ... and for other musicians". Furthermore, the "freedom of having [his] own studio and having people in Nashville who could come at short notice" enabled White to use "100 different production styles" on Blunderbuss. While recording songs for the album, White alternated between all-male and all-female backing bands. He often recorded different versions of individual songs using each band to "see if anything changed". According to White, the sessions for Blunderbuss generated "something like 25 songs", 13 of which were included in the album. Most of the songs on it were written and recorded in the latter half of 2011.