On his second album in less than four months, Jack White leans into a side of himself that has too often been overshadowed by his electrifying, reputation-earning guitar solos. Entering Heaven Alive is the musician’s first (mostly) acoustic solo album, and for many of his fans it will feel like a long overdue change in direction.
Throughout White’s canon, but especially his White Stripes work, standout tracks like “I’m Bound to Pack It Up,” “The Same Boy You’ve Always Known,” and “We’re Going to Be Friends” have provided a crucial counterbalance to his shrieking bluesman act. These songs reveal resonant layers of melodicism, lyrical mythos, and vulnerability—all of which were lacking from last April’s often thrilling but largely homogeneous Fear of the Dawn.
The practice of releasing companion albums in close succession often reeks of self-indulgence, as it suggests an artist’s inability or unwillingness to edit themselves. But in this case, there’s a clear logic. White recorded the material on both albums simultaneously, not initially intending to split them up. Only one track here, “I’ve Got You Surrounded (With My Love),” with its jungle-blues rhythm, semi-improvisatory feel, and buzzing mosquito guitar licks, could have fit comfortably on Fear of the Dawn. And yet, the song meanders in comparison to the rapid-fire kineticism of that album’s coiled riff bombs.
Even if that weren’t the case, White’s track record offers good reason to be intrigued by the prospect of a quieter, rootsier album. But it turns out, at least at this point in his career, even his more subdued songs are best appreciated when they’re laced with his usual eclectic mix of styles. The aggressively eccentric avant-rock stylings of Fear of the Dawn and especially its predecessor, Boarding House Reach, were not always easy to stomach, but they at least evinced an artist intent on challenging both himself and his audience.
By comparison, almost every song on Entering Heaven Alive gets basically the same treatment: acoustic guitar picking, some light Hammond organ and piano, a bit of well-mannered violin, and White singing in a low register. It certainly suits the lyrically tender and tastefully adorned songs, which is sort of the problem: While the album is more overtly listenable than the rest of White’s recent solo work, it’s also very predictable. Dirges “All Along the Way” and “A Tree on Fire from Within” seem like sonic pencil sketches—expertly drawn but lacking the fiery coloring that was so abundant on Fear of the Dawn.
Taken individually, though, many of the tracks on Entering Heaven Alive offer the genuine joy of hearing White indulge in previously obscured shades of his songwriting. The electric piano-driven “Help Me Along” features a McCartney-esque bounciness that one would more readily expect from White’s Raconteurs bandmate Brendan Benson, and which White has only rarely indulged in the past. Elsewhere, the old-timey country-jazz swing of “Queen of the Bees” and “Taking Me Back (Gently)” nod toward White’s musical annalist side.
White the wordsmith also returns in full force after Fear of the Dawn’s afterthought of a lyric sheet. “Love Is Selfish,” for instance, offers White’s latest provocative personification of love (“Always crying, ‘Me, me, me,’ and/It’s always trying to mess up all my plans”), set to gorgeous finger-picking that accesses the sort of radiant country-tinged bittersweetness that he achieved on 2003’s “Never Far Away.” And the back-to-back pairing of “If I Die Tomorrow” and “Please God, Don’t Tell Anyone” offers disarmingly stark explorations of mortality and legacy.
As usual, White writes more in character than confessionally. Still, as he ruminates on departing and saddling loved ones with the burdens of his past, his straight-from-the-gut vocals belie a deep, personal investment in these narratives. It’s at this blurry intersection of inscrutability and openness, of pure persona and slavish authenticity, that White has often done his best work. Much of Entering Heaven Alive exists too far to one side of that spectrum.
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