| "White Houses" | ||||
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| Single by Vanessa Carlton | ||||
| from the album Harmonium | ||||
| Released | August 30, 2004 (U.S. radio)[1] October 13, 2004 (Japan) November 1, 2004 (UK) |
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| Format | Promo single, 5" CD single | |||
| Genre | Piano pop | |||
| Length | 3:44 | |||
| Label | A&M (U.S.) AMRR-11209-2 Universal Records (Japan) UICS-5028 |
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| Writer(s) | Vanessa Carlton, Stephan Jenkins | |||
| Producer | Stephan Jenkins | |||
| Vanessa Carlton singles chronology | ||||
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"White Houses" is a pop song written by American singer Vanessa Carlton and Stephan Jenkins (lead singer of Third Eye Blind), and recorded for Vanessa Carlton's second album Harmonium (2004). Produced by Jenkins, it was released as the album's first single in 2004 (see 2004 in music). Though not a huge hit for the singer, it has become a cult classic among teenagers.
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"White Houses" is structured around a 4/4 time signature which Blender magazine has described as "bright" and "un-girly",[2] and is backed by an orchestral arrangement that PopMatters magazine said "would make Jim Steinman blush".[3] Carlton said of the song: "It's about jealousy, it's about losing your virginity, it's about living on your own. It's a story that most people can relate to ... It's really the journey of one girl and her perception of her environment and how she starts out as a wide-eyed person, but everyone gets hardened by life, but not necessarily to the point where you can't feel anymore." She has also said it is about "rites of passage."[4] "White Houses" was the first song Carlton and Jenkins wrote together, and Lindsey Buckingham of the band Fleetwood Mac played acoustic guitar on the track after Jenkins met Buckingham, who was recording in the same building as Carlton, and invited him to listen to the song. Carlton said, "he just came in, played this great riff, recorded it and then he left. It all happened very fast, and turned out amazing." The song provided the inspiration for a charity project, Building White Houses. It began on November 9, 2004 and ended on December 31, 2005. Its aim was to raise money for Habitat for Humanity International.
Rolling Stone compared the song to Carlton's debut single "A Thousand Miles" from 2002, defining "White Houses" as "another spazzy, arpeggiated single ... which is not about the real White House but does kind of conjure the Bush twins jamming in a drop-top".[5] A critic for Billboard magazine said of the song: "it bears the do-it-my-way signature of a singer/songwriter who relies on piano; a meandering, storytelling lyrical style; and deceptively sweet vocals that underlie an intellectual bent ... The result is a highly original composition that makes you really want to listen and understand — and then sing along."[6] PopMatters magazine presented a much more negative summary of the song, by saying that it "basically sums up everything that's wrong with Harmonium: An overly familiar vocal melody, juvenile "Dear Diary" lyrics (with lots of references to 'boys' plus a cringe-worthy reference to John Steinbeck) ... And a bombastic backing arrangement."[3] Billboard critic Jonathon Newan describes White Houses as "beautifully humble and amazingly crafted. The in-depth lyrics which almost any nomad can relate to on a person level gives it an extraordinary inner-meaning, and the spectacular background arrangement is something that most pop songs lack. It's profound. It should be Carlton's next hit."
The single reached number 86 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, though it peaked within the top 40 on Billboard's Top 40 Mainstream and Adult Top 40 charts. Slant magazine named it the sixth best single of 2004, writing: "[it's] the kind of song that truly cements a career ... poignant, bloody, fleeting, and beautiful, much like adolescence".[7] Blender magazine ranked "White Houses" at number 43 on its "100 Best Songs of 2004" list.[8] The song failed to chart in Japan, and in Taiwan, "Private Radio" was the album's first single.
Anti-folk singer Kimya Dawson performed a cover of "White Houses" during a live concert at Falmouth, Maine in May 2005.[9] Carlton had previously contributed backing vocals to a track on Dawson's 2004 album Hidden Vagenda.
Carlton appeared to world-premiere the video on MTV's Total Request Live in the U.S. on August 11, 2004, and it debuted on VH1 on August 26.[10][11] MTV, VH1 and some radio stations censored the song because of its lyrics. Carlton later described the situation as "just, you know, frustrating sometimes because they can pick and choose, which I don't think is fair if you want to make a statement."[12] She attributed the censoring of the song to the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy involving Janet Jackson, which had occurred earlier that year.[13]
"White Houses" became the subject of a prank that Ashton Kutcher pulled on Carlton for the MTV television show Punk'd. During Carlton's rehearsal for a scheduled performance on The Tonight Show in November 2004, Kutcher's Punk'd crewmembers (disguised as staff from The Tonight Show) said Carlton needed to change both the bridge of the song and the line "I'm too thin" (in light of the publicity surrounding Mary-Kate Olsen's bout of anorexia nervosa). Upon realisation that it was a trick, Carlton told Kutcher, "All I have to say is 'thank the fucking Lord.'" (She performed the original version of the song on The Tonight Show on November 18, 2004, and the Punk'd episode was aired in May 2005.)
The video For "White Houses" shows alternate personalities of Carlton at a piano singing shyly and Carlton dancing in a ballet studio. In the opening verse of the song, while she is seen singing at a piano, her "double" smirks at singing Carlton and starts dancing obviously taking advantage of all the space in the studio in a competitive way. Midway into the song, the dancing Carlton climbs atop the piano while the singing Carlton walks off conservatively while the dancing double takes over the singing. Soon after, singing Carlton regains her confidence and walks back to the piano and sings. Dancing Carlton goes back to dancing competitively but soon runs out of dance moves. The dancing style is considered to be a mix of ballet and lyrical.
Near the end, the "double" tires and collapses to the ground, while Carlton at the piano rises to take a look.
It's been said by Carlton herself that for years in her youth she was a ballerina, and soon tired of the controlled style of dancing required to attend the New York Ballet Academy she attended. She discovered love in playing music, and soon grew to skip practices and rebel against dancing all together, and rather poured herself into her music and carried on from there.
The video is meant to express the battle between her music and her own set way of doing things. The dancing involved is Carlton's own self expression in dancing which she could not do while attending ballet school. While Carlton has not stated such, the song and/or video holds strong similarities about herself and her coming of age.
| Chart (2004) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 86 |
| U.S. Billboard Pop Songs | 25 |
| U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream | 25 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40 | 27 |
| Japanese Oricon Singles Chart | — |
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