Jack White Teases Forthcoming LP Boarding House Reach

Back in 2015, local luminary, rock star and Third Man Records label head Jack White announced that he'd be taking a break from touring for "a very long period of time." And indeed, though he's stayed at work over the two-and-a-half years since he announced the hiatus — producing Lillie Mae's Third Man debut, dueting with Elton John, receiving awards, writing a children's book and, naturally, plenty more — he's pretty much stayed off the road. 

But as The New Yorker's Alec Wilkinson discovered in March, White recently took to a secret apartment somewhere here in Nashville where he was working up songs and recording them to a reel-to-reel. You may recall that TMR tweeted about White putting in some studio time on an album back in the summer, as well. Today, Third Man is teasing the first glimpses of White's furtive efforts. As you can see in the above video, the singer has released an audiovisual collage of sorts. Titled "Servings and Portions From My Boarding House Reach," the clip features rapid intercut images of props and performers backed by snippets of White's performances. From tribal rhythms to cacophonous bursts of percussion, brief jazzy interludes and good ol' fuzzy riffing, the sounds embedded in the clip are truly all over the map. Whatever White's been up to, it appears to have produced some diverse results.

A release date for White's album — presumably titled Boarding House Reach — has not yet been announced, so you'll just have to stay tuned for more. Just let this tidbit about the album, quoted by NPR at a recent appearance in Detroit, tide you over: "It's a bizarre one. I've just got to let it settle. I need to listen to it by myself. I haven't been able to listen to it by myself for a while."