No Name - Jack White: Review

Jack White really needs no introduction, but I'll do my best. The Detroit blues rock legend first emerged as the blistering face of The White Stripes, whose 6 albums between 1999 and 2007 are (almost) all great. Since then he's expanded his role into an incredible variety of musical projects. With 5 solo albums under his belt since, he's also formed two other bands, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. He's also spread his sound and style as a producer, label head, and surprise guest star on critical darling albums from Beyonce and A Tribe Called Quest. 

Now we've arrived at No Name, a clear back-to-basics moment for Jack White. The journey to get here sort of begins with his 2018 album Boarding House Reach. It's surprisingly experimental sound palette turned off some of White's longtime fans, though I'm personally pretty fond of the record. But in 2022 White released two records, an experiment into even more zany electric guitar palettes on Fear Of The Dawn and an indulgence into acoustic songwriting on Entering Heaven Alive, neither of which I was particularly fond of. But all of a sudden last week, news stories started to pop up about blank copies of a new Jack White record being sold at Third Man Records locations with him encouraging fans to leak the record online. 

But truth be told if there's anything you've heard about No Name in the past week. it's probably that it fucking rips. The album is a throwback to a sound White hasn't played with in years, a truly righteous return to the bluesy garage rock that first elevated him to this platform. Grab some huge highlights on this record like That's How I'm Feeling with its loud-quiet-loud dynamic and infectious dueling guitar riffs or What's The Rumpus? with its fascinating lyrical intrigue and you'll be whisked away back to the days of classic records like White Blood Cells. 

In lieu of going through every song on this record in explicit detail to explain how much they rock, I'll try and be more concise. The one-two punch of Old Scratch Blues and Bless Yourself to start the album off is world class. The former features some anxiety-inducing lyrics about the state of the world today delivered through Jack's signature cascading snarl. The latter is an absolute rager that seems to be among the early fan favorites and for good reason as it's one of the most intense displays of noise on the entire record but doesn't have to sacrifice a catchy hook. 

That isn't the only time on the album that White indulges in the raw edge of punk that defined some of The White Stripes very early material. Bombing Out is a shorter cut but manages to be an absolutely fuzzed-out jam with grinding punk riffs that hide more instrumental variety than you may initially expect underneath them. Number One With A Bullet displays pretty excellent patience, which probably isn't the word you'd use when you first hear it. But once it erupts following a killer bridge in the final minute suddenly its first half starts to feel meditative by comparison. There's also Missionary even later on the record whose lyrics are far more brash and direct than fans may have come to expect from Jack White but with great results. 

This album really is interesting on the lyrical front in addition to the instrumentals. It's Rough On Rats is one thematic highlight. Jack White talking about the ills of contemporary society is nothing new but on this song, he specifically hones in on how it affects those at the bottom of the food chain, in this case literal rats. Archbishop Harold Holmes is fittingly the records most obvious dives into religious subject matter. It takes the form of a level of kookiness White has picked up as a solo artist and weaver of bizarre rants during live shows. It's such an off-the-wall song full of seemingly incoherent rambling but it's all composed too well and weaved into the instrumental expertly, leaving me repeating some of the strangest moments over and over in my head. 

Yeah, No Name fucking rules. I wasn't one of the people clambering for Jack White to return back to an older sound, but in doing so he proved that he isn't simply still capable of it, but the master of it. No Name feels like Jack White didn't even break a sweat. Finishing the album I truly believe he's got an entire album that's just as fire sitting in a vault somewhere in Nashville. This is the kind of album you write and record when you're miles ahead of your contemporaries but still wanna prove you can beat them at the game you invented. If this isn't the best straight up rock and roll album of 2024, I'll be stunned. 8.5/10

For more rock check out my review of IDLES TANGK