So why is Jack White’s Entering Heaven Alive on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
This is tThis is the Jack White solo album I waited decades for.
I’m serious.
While I’m a big fan of anything White gets involved with – The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, and an ever growing number of solo albums – a chunk of the solo stuff dwells in the dark and at times experimental electric blues territory that tends to be some of my least favorite Jack White material.
His collection of acoustic recordings, Jack White Acoustic Recordings 1998–2016 (#154 of best 1,000 albums ever), from 2016 is a revelation, but it only made me hungrier for a standalone album of original songs focused on Jack White’s relatively more gentle and soulful musical leanings.
And my goodness and my golly does Entering Heaven Alive deliver on that score.
Forming something of a bookend to Fear of the Dawn (#605) – which is, quoting myself, “a loud, chaotic-sounding album replete with fuzzed up and occasionally screeching guitars” – both albums were released in 2022.
There are two songs on Entering Heaven Alive that I remain obsessed with to this day and that are easily among my favorites that have been produced in this century.
“Love Is Selfish” is my favorite of them all – a deceptively simple song (something that no one has perfected more than Jack White) that almost entirely features just White on acoustic guitar and his vocals*.
* If you listen closely, there’s very subtle percussion that’s layered in during the song’s second half.
It’s all in the songwriting here, the gorgeous arpeggiated guitar chords, the emotion, and the performance. It’s a perfect song, and I love it deeply.
Someone smarter than me and you
Might end up solving a clue or two
But could they make it happen with their hands?
And they build it up from nothing with their hands
I could lose my mind just tryin’ to understand
“If I Die Tomorrow,” leveraging strings and keyboards, has a more dramatic and acoustic rock feel. Its power lies in part in its restraint and in its drop-dead gorgeous melody.
“A Tip From You To Me,” the album opener, with its classic White Stripes-y leveraging of piano and acoustic guitar, feels like it could easily slot in as one of the best songs on Elephant or Get Behind Me Satan (which I hope you realize is high praise indeed).
“A Madman From Manhattan” is about as jazzy as you’ll ever find Jack White, a sly and subtle number that grooves along like a taxi speeding downtown at midnight under a succession of green lights.
And “Queen of the Bees” is whimsical and fanciful. It’s great fun and delightful, as is Entering Heaven Alive as a whole.
Some stats & info about Jack White – Entering Heaven Alive
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Indie Rock, Alternative Pop
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Entering Heaven Alive released? 2022
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #87 out of 1,000
Jack White’s Entering Heaven Alive on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Jack White’s Entering Heaven Alive that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Love is such a selfish thing, it’s always crying, “Me, me, me.”
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.