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Description
**Jack White: *Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016***
Released September 9, 2016 on Third Man Records, this compilation offers Detroit native Jack White's gentler face to the public eye. Though the title suggests a treasury of rough drafts, it's actually a deliberate chronological cherry-pick of acoustic tracks across his discography-stripped of electric pyrotechnics but not of presence. The record spans the backwoods road to the Stripes' 2007 swan song *Icky Thump*, revealing how the acoustic format evolved from an unplugged antidote on *White Blood Cells* to a foundation for experimentation on *De Stijl*, then eventually becoming as essential to constructing their childlike fantasias as their block-rockin' rave-ups.
The compilation's first disc charting the transition to the Stripes' electric masterpieces, while the more revelatory second disc kicks off with the first official release of "Love Is the Truth"-the winsome 2006 Coca-Cola jingle that symbolically coincided with White finally ditching Detroit-scene politics to establish shop in Nashville, heralding his transformation into a multimedia mogul. The move also coincided with the formation of his supergroup the Raconteurs, represented here by countrified alternate takes of "Top Yourself" and "Carolina Drama."
By the time the timeline reaches White's 2012 solo debut *Blunderbuss*, the Acoustic Recordings concept practically becomes moot, as the 90/10 ratio of electric to acoustic songs that once governed White Stripes records had effectively reversed. With a wide cast of Music City pros at his side, tracks like "Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy" and "On and On and On" key in on the homespun spirit of the Band, the Faces, and Exile-era Stones. White's acoustic catalog used to be a space where he could reveal a more gentle, whimsical side. But in his sometimes fraught adjustment to A-list celebrity-with all the publicized fistfights, divorces, shit-talking, and lawsuits that have come with it-White's conversational writing has, at times, turned more tense and terse. "I want love to/Change my friends to enemies/And show me how it's all my fault," he seethes on *Blunderbuss*' "Love Interruption" like a man scorned.
More than just showcasing his tuneful side, *Acoustic Recordings* is a shrine to White's self-sufficiency, in both the musical and ideological senses. After all, White has always been one to take matters into his own hands, whether he's building guitars from some spare wire and wood, opening his own record press, or ensuring aliens have access to a turntable.
[AllMusic review](https://www.allmusic.com/album/acoustic-recordings-1998-2016-mw0002972771) | [Pitchfork review](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22350-jack-white-acoustic-recordings-1998-2016/)
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