If the subtle, insistent ‘Love Interruption’ was like a gentle easing through the door, rather than a bells and whistles Ta-Da return, ‘Machine Gun Silhouette’ feels like a proper comeback.
It’s short and snappy but more than ‘Love Interruption’, it does what the best of White’s work can do: perfectly conjure up a specific point and time in (fictional) US history.
On ‘Machine Gun Silhouette’ White’s gone all Bonanza on us. On the track, the feeling of an arid, dust bowl era landscape dominates, with the former White Stripe delivering his lines like a no-nonsense, tobacco-chewing maverick focused on saying ‘Kiss My Grits’ to any bad guy that comes into town.
But this being White, the scenery is sepia-tinged not Technicolor. Here a bird song-like fiddle is mixed over his trademark crunching guitar, whilst there’s a bell-clear piano line that recalls The White Stripes strangest and most mellow album ‘Get Behind Me Satan’.
The production crackles and breathes like it was recorded in 1969. But the vinyl stylings of the track are more than just a red flag indicating ‘authenticity’, however – it feels like part of the heart and soul of the song, a sincere love letter to the cinematic snapshot in White’s head.
All in all, this suggests that ‘Blunderbuss’ will be his most country driven collection since his work with Loretta Lynn on her 2004 ‘Van Lear Rose’ album.