Jack White - Fear Of The Dawn (2022) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

The first half of 2022's two solo releases from Jack White (acoustic Entering Heaven Alive is out in July), Fear of the Dawn is a solid reminder the rock 'n' roll isn't dead: Call it White's Sabbath era. "Taking Me Back" is as heavy, and as '70s, as anything he's done, layered with fuzzed-out guitar, underwater drums, and in-and-out effects that make the whole thing sound so big it's shorting out the system. The title track absolutely swings, its bass like an 18-wheeler plowing down a highway at midnight—steady while the guitar squalls, out of control and all over the place, refusing to between the lines. White works himself up into a tent-revival preacher froth—on the cusp of evangelism and madness—on "What's the Trick": "Stomping on a box that I thought was empty/ But there was something sharp inside," he rants as a guitar maniacally runs scales through a monster filter. And that's hardly the weirdest moment. White, a guy who has never seemed casual or like he takes his purpose lightly, is in a playful, experimental mood. "Into the Twilight" starts with a bit of Manhattan Transfer-style vocals, then leaps fearlessly into '70s funk and disco camp, throwing in a William S. Burroughs sample ("When you cut into the present, the future leaks out") and down-and-dirty keys. "Hi-De-Ho" kicks in with mystical vocalization before A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip rolls up with some '80s style rap—nodding to the obvious reference ("Hi-de-hi-de-ho is a Calloway vibe") and unleashing some fun top-of-their-game nonsense: "Hurting real bad, like Stevie Wonder with contusions/ It's a guitar chuck coming from Chuck Berry/ Hi-de-high tones from Minnie Rip, Mariah Carey/ Olajuwon post moves, Bron or Embiid/ Everybody got it in 'em, find yours and succeed." "That Was Then, This Is Now" incorporates '70s bubblegum glam metal á la The Sweet, "Eosophobia" rides a jackhammer rhythm that slides sideways into The Edge-style atmospherics and laser-show effects, and "The White Raven" features both a pounding, industrial grind and haunted-house howls. "My camouflage is invisible … my armor is invincible," White sings, big, freewheeling and refreshed.

TRACKLIST

1. Taking Me Back
2. Fear Of The Dawn
3. The White Raven
4. Hi-De-Ho
5. Eosophobia
6. Into the Twilight
7. Dusk
8. What's The Trick
9. That Was Then, This is Now
10. Eosophobia (Reprise)
11. Morning, Noon And Night
12. Shedding My Velvet



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