"Since the White Stripes split, Jack White’s work has become fuller, more elaborate, and more conventionally ambitious; his idiosyncrasies have dimmed a bit, too, so his music is less subversive, less culture-shaking, less special. In fact, nowadays White might be most compelling as a label impresario who releases new singles via balloons and coaxes Neil Young to record a covers album in a modified phone booth. It’s the one role where he displays the same sense of childlike whimsy that motivated the White Stripes."