In March 2017, in an interview with The New Yorker, White revealed that he was in the process of writing new music. He had set up shop in a small apartment in Nashville, Tennessee, where he recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder which he purchased when he was fourteen. His goal was "to try to write songs where I can't be heard by the next-door neighbor. And I want to write like Michael Jackson would write — instead of writing parts on the instruments or humming melodies, you think of them. To do everything in my head and to do it in silence and use only one room." He spent several hours each day crafting in this space. On July 27, White announced that he was working on his third solo album, with recording sessions taking place in New York City and Los Angeles. In November, during a keynote speech at the Making Vinyl conference in Detroit, he offered an update on the album, saying that it was nearly completed and required only a few more additions for completion. He noted it as a "bizarre" record, saying "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 awhile." Boarding House Reach was recorded throughout 2017 at Third Man Studio in Nashville, Sear Sound in New York City, and Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. White produced and co-mixed the album and played guitars, drums, organs, and synthesizers, while also acting as the vocalist. He performed alongside a brand new group of session musicians who had previously worked with several notable musical talents in the past. "Connected by Love" was the first song to be written for the album. It was originally titled "Infected by Love", but White renamed the track after realizing that not everyone would understand the metaphor of the title. The track "Over and Over and Over" was originally written in 2005 as a possible song for the White Stripes, one of White's former bands. It was also nearly recorded in collaboration with American rapper Jay-Z and almost recorded with another one of White's bands, the Raconteurs; the song was ultimately shelved until the recording sessions for Boarding House Reach.
Promotion and release
On December 12, 2017, White released a teaser video for the album titled "Servings and Portions from My Boarding House Reach". It was a sound collage of tracks from Boarding House Reach, displaying the many sounds and styles the album contained. A teaser for the song "Connected by Love" was released on January 9, 2018. The next day, "Connected by Love" was premiered on Zane Lowe's radio show on Beats 1, with a music video for the song also being released on the same day. The album track "Respect Commander" was also released as the b-side to the song. Both songs were also released together on a 7" vinyl single through Third Man Records on the same day. A tri-color version of the single was made available exclusively on January 13 at the Third Manrecord stores in Detroit and Nashville for that day only. White later released "Corporation" as a promotional single on January 26. "Over and Over and Over" was released as the album's second non-promotional single on March 1. Boarding House Reach was released on March 23, 2018 through White's own Third Man Records as well as Columbia Records and XL Recordings. A limited edition vinyl version was made available to customers of the Third Man Records Vault service. The package features a different cover art, light-up vinyl record, 7" colored vinyl single of demos for the tracks "Connected by Love" and "Why Walk a Dog?", and photographs taken during the recording sessions of the album.
Commercial performance
Boarding House Reach received generally positive reviews, with its unorthodox production and style noted as a departure from White's previous studio albums and projects. While critics mainly praised the album for its ambition, experimentalism and artistic approach, its criticisms mainly focused on its inconsistency and production. The album performed well commercially, topping the US Billboard 200 upon release, making it White's third number-one album on that chart. Elsewhere, it was a number-one album in Canada and reached number five in Scotland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Track listing
Personnel
Primary artist
Jack White – vocals, electric guitar, acoustic drums, synthesizer, acoustic guitar, electronic drums, bass, piano, tambourine, organ
Session musicians
Bobby Allende – percussion, acoustic drums
Carla Azar – acoustic drums, electronic drums
Anthony “Brew” Brewster – synthesizer, Hammond organ
Justin Carpenter – trombone
Louis Cato – acoustic drums, electronic drums, acoustic guitar, bass
