Here’s a surprise that will satisfy fans of good raw rock: Jack White is back with a sixth solo album, “no name”, which appeared without warning last Friday. Don’t look for it on Spotify or Apple Music, the album of 13 new compositions is being traded under the counter virtualas its author wishes, who, on social networks, invited those who got hold of his mysterious vinyl to make copies and distribute it far and wide. Advice: look for it, it’s the bomb, which takes the musician back to his garage-blues-rock beginnings with The White Stripes.
Besides, who knows if this isn’t a new White Stripes album? Jack’s voice, his guitars and the thunderous drums are the basic materials of the songs, to which are sometimes added a few punctures of Hammond B3, as on the opening song. The duo he formed with the drummer and singer Meg White may have dissolved in 2011, this new album does not indicate that Meg does not appear on it – in fact, it indicates nothing. No cover, no song titles, not even Jack’s name written on it. Just a white vinyl stamped ” No Name “, with the only indications being the engravings in the center of the album: side A would bear the title “Heaven and Hell”, side B, “Black and Blue”.
This is second-hand information since we have not seen the object, already coveted by collectors (on a resale site, three copies are listed at more than $1,000!). Its distribution was done in an equally unusual way: last Friday, customers of Jack White’s three record stores, Third Man Records (the original is in Detroit; the branches, in Nashville and London), going to the cash register to pay for their purchases were given the mysterious 33 rpm for free – it is unknown how many copies were pressed.
Surprise! A whole album by Jack White, who then invited lucky customers to copy and spread his 13 new original songs, through which the musician invokes the spirit, and energy, of the duo The White Stripes, which he once formed with Meg White. A rock with tones of blues and punk, raw and tenacious, songs with an average duration of three minutes, too well recorded and mixed for it to be a totally spontaneous gesture on the part of the singer-songwriter.
After three albums with concepts that were not always clearly defined (Boarding House Reach in 2018, the double formed by Fear of the Dawn and D’Entering Heaven Alivereleased three months apart in 2022), there’s something terribly refreshing about White’s style, even as he returns to those old garage rock loves.
The A side is particularly enjoyable, White pushing a dull blues rock that catches its breath when the guitarist plays the theme solo, between two bursts of drums. With his voice distorted, he invites us to church on the next one, playing his guitar with a razor blade: ” Everyone must bow down / and every time confess / And I don’t care how you found out / This is only a test so test us, yeah ! ” he yells, evoking the sound of The Stooges.
We know his bearings, Jimmy Page’s playing, imitated to perfection on the fourth song of this side. He innovates on the next one, reciting more than he sings, the prosody rhythmic like that of an MC on a Southern rock roll, before diving head first into unleashed psychedelic punk. With its heady guitar riff, the seventh and final song on side A launches straight into side B, six more classic tracks, all propelled by arena guitar motifs. The rock album of the summer holidays!