Jack White returns for intimate Detroit show with blistering new album
As I started listening, I couldn’t believe it. I was listening to Jack White’s best music since his time with the White Stripes, coming with ferocity and precision we hadn’t seen since that band’s heyday as garage rock’s chief revivalist in the early 2000s.
My friend Greg texted me about seeing White, informing he had scored a pair of the highly-sought after tickets to surprise, last-minute show on Monday, Aug. 5 at Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit. I owe him big time, because White will be drawing from some of his most inspired guitar heroics and songwriting since Elephant from his latest solo effort No Name.
If you ever just wanted Jack to deliver the riffs without the filler, he fulfills that wish on No Name. The songs are more immediate; catchier and more direct in their messages than the Detroit native’s five previous solos efforts.
While he will never lose legendary status with a rock and roll resume that includes the use of a legendary LEGO themed music video to breakthrough into the mainstream before delivering the riff that is reimagined as every home sports team’s go-to kickoff war chant, White’s solo work has lacked the distinctiveness and immediacy that gave his work with the White Stripes such special DNA.
Recorded, produced and mixed by White at his Third Man Studio throughout 2023 and 2024, No Name is his sparest, bluesiest solo affair to date, relying on Zeppelin-esque riffs accentuated by White’s characteristic brute force, rather than studio tricks, to win you over. The music doesn’t tread into White’s recent proggy sound experiments and sketches of songs that made albums like Fear of the Dawn and Boarding House Reach fall flat. Instead, White relies on some of his old songwriting tricks from the White Stripes franchise during No Name’s 13 songs and 43 minute runtime to deliver his most focused work in years: Memorable riffs, blistering solos and lyrics that make you think rather than cringe.
From the squealing solo that closes out slow burn opener Old Scratch Blues, to It’s Rough On Rats (If You’re Asking), which features one of Whites most hair-raising performances a few tracks later, it’s clear White is trying to rely on his guitar chops, not overdubbing chops, to wow you. White’s solo efforts have never lacked ambition or shied away from trying to push sonic boundaries. But after mostly maintaining the Stripes status quo on solo efforts Blunderbuss and Lazaretto, White’s creativity has lost steam; replaced by studio experiments to make up for the lack of a good batch of songs.
No Name wins this good will back not only with the aforementioned guitar heroics, but with a more straightforward approach and provocative lyrics that aren’t too ham fisted. “I've got a feeling that the truth's become opinion these days,” White sings on What’s the Rumpus, one of several one-liners fixated on the present political climate and culture. On Old Scratch Blues, the symbolism is even more overt: “I'll take you to the border/and show you how you're gonna be free/ This machine is out of order, it stole my quarter/ and now there's nothing left to take from me.”
The album was released on Friday, Aug. 2, after copies of the record were distributed guerilla-style to unsuspecting Third Man Records customers making purchases a couple of weeks earlier. Presented with the words No Name printed as the record label on a white record sleeve, the promotional campaign behind the album appears to be directed at a “return to the music” for White, asking listeners to buy in without the window dressing.
Third Man’s promotion of the record notes the approach proved “something mysterious can grow into the beautiful experience of a community sharing the excitement and energy of music and art.”
When the songs are there, that approach begins to make a lot more sense, making Monday’s show at Saint Andrews Hall all the more exciting, with the new material - not the hits - taking center stage.