Pulling away from the experimental touch ups and pushing in the garage rock brashness, Jack White still somehow delivers on his first 2022 record, 'Fear of the Dawn'.
Jack White’s output has always been intriguing. After the breakup of The White Stripes, his foothold towards blues-rock with punchy grooves and melodic tune on his first two solo outputs has always been welcome, even if it does sound a bit too familiar. But then his 2019 record, ‘Boarding House Reach’ goes for a left-field, churning out an experimental detour that worked out effectively, but sure has made people divisive on that record.
It seems that Jack White still leans on those experimental perks in this new record, but also manages to go back to those blues and garage rock roots of his. As a result, this is another experimental record that Jack White still pushes through but oddly isn’t that experimental unlike his successful detour of that descriptor on his past record.
To point that out is a weird part to begin with, as Jack White still pushes through with weird yet still remarkable compositions and performances that are still part of his charm. The melodies are still punchy as ever, and Jack White’s performance may as well be his most bewildered at least when it comes to his solo output. And when he does get experimental, the results come out in odd but fascinating ways. Take ‘Hi-De-Ho’ with its weird western-esque bellows just before Q-Tip raps over a shuffling beat and ‘Into the Twilight’ with its weird effects and layers strewed across a potent groove.
While the rest of the record doesn’t really step on the experimental rock and more on the garage rock side of things, it does mostly work. Where the melodies still make for a stomping experience and where the textures do land impact. Songs such as ‘Taking Me Back’ with its propulsive energy, ‘Fear Of The Dawn’ that delivers a driving, tense mood, ‘Eosophobia’ with its cycling riffs that expand into a bigger breakdown, and ‘What’s The Trick?’ with its rowdy melodies from the guitars and the percussion.
But as much as the melodies do stick, the record overall felt deflated and overstuffed with repeated listens. The downsides do show up as it sticks like a sore thumb, where the digital drum kit sounds stiff and the vocal pickups sound muddy, not to forget the compression on the instruments that can make the tracks lose their power. The writing aspect also resorts to underwhelming detours towards keeping the love aflame and changing for the better amidst the surrounding focus of the dawn. But it’s the overstuffed progressions and uniformed garage rock sound on these short runtime that unfortunately stifles the album as a whole, where melodic swerves come around too quickly and lack of breathing room towards building up those progressions to a really bombastic climax and ending makes the already short tracks feel a bit too much. It would have been better if they are extended further to make those ideas properly land, even add more to the already bombastic songs as well. There are experimental notes that Jack White slips in for a few songs here, but he doesn’t seem to do much more than ‘Hi-De-Ho’ and ‘Into The Twilight’. It results in the rest of the songs acting as nothing more but solid garage rock tracks that are not remotely experimental or groundbreaking in that regard.
It’s quite disappointing because, at the end of the day, Jack White still showcases a quality record with bombastic tunes and some worthwhile curiosities here and there. The issue is that the songs can be a bit too much compositionally, some production and instrumental touches didn’t exactly work out that well, and the lyricism felt like a step back overall. The tunes might be there, but the rest is quite a downgrade, sadly.
Favorite Tracks: Taking Me Back, Hi-De-Ho, Into The Twilight, What’s The Trick?, Eosophobia
Least Favorite Track: The White Raven