Jack White - Fear of the Dawn Is His Most Electrifying Album Yet
Good old fashioned rock n’ roll. What more can you ask?
Jack White. Frontman of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, Guitarist extraordinaire. Analog revivalist. What else is there to say?
I wouldn’t say he’s single-handedly bringing back rock & roll, but he’s certainly bringing a raw sound into the spotlight.
His three albums are proof of his brilliant musicianship, but with all his crazy blues rockers, he often contrasts them with slower, more acoustic tracks.
However, by separating his contrasting folk balladry to another album, Entering Heaven Alive, Fear of the Dawn leaves us with a flavorful cut of All Killer, Off-Kilter rock.
Jack sustains remarkable energy that’s so heavy and electrifying, his only album that purely feels like so.
Jack certainly plays his cards right, further showing his impeccable knack for a sound that’s all-killer, one that really felt like his own, and not just a side project.
In his new album, the guitar is undeniably the star of the show, you get to appreciate the dexterity of many other elements.
Like the sharp and occasionally distorted drum patterns, or the interplay between synths and guitars, to the very defined basslines, or even the theremin present.
Many of which are actually Jack’s own work, with the help of a few session musicians like Daru Jones, Quincy McCrary, or his wife Olivia Jean.
Beneath its blue exterior, a lot goes, and it can delve into weird sensations.
A few examples would be the dub style of Eosophobia, or the voicelike wah wah Pedal of Into the Twilight, or the lo-fi garage rock leanings of That Was Then, This is Now, and of course, Hi-De-Ho.
Yet Jack does a good job in making it all feel so cohesive, without it feeling like a bigger deal that it sounds experimental or anything.
Since, it’s nowhere near left-field like his last album, Boarding House Reach, an album you either adore or find mediocre.
Though many of Jack’s subdued ballads feel more tender and pristine, as opposed to the record’s thrash-y method of resonation, the absence of those here feels more exciting as a result.
Fear of the Dawn compromises with the weirdness Jack wanted and the extraordinary music that’s sparse in say, an album like Lazaretto.
Many of its quirks don’t deter from Fear of the Dawn’s rough cut mood, which I already imagine sounds thrilling in a stadium setting.
This is a dang solid contender, further proof of Jack White’s true blue staying power.
The album opens strong with Taking Me Back, with the strong distorted guitar and all, but that bouncing bass drum sounds so infectious, which brings the back-to-basics feel of it together.
Then it quickly transitions to a fuzzier, heavier title track, Fear of the Dawn, this one definitely draws influences from metal.
The White Raven continues the fuzz of the title track along with the disturbed mystique feel of this album, though as a result of embracing its own themes, it falls somewhat short in being a listenable track outside its context.
At first I embraced Hi-De-Ho despite its strange nature; I like Q-Tip’s simple verse (yes, he raps on here), I like the thin drums, the bass hook is neat
I’m quite a fan of A Tribe Called Quest, and I’m all for genre-bending, seeing two unlikely artists like this feels like a delight.
But then overtime it felt more lopsided the more I listen, it certainly has this “messing around” quality to it, all the layered voices remind me of Latin-infused music, and it feels off from the rest of the record.
Eosophobia is a reference to the album’s title, literally being the fear of the dawn, I like how bright and unique it all sounds, it gives off this garage rock feel.
I love how the light dub guitar syncs with Jack’s vocals, or beforehand when the guitars come in by itself. It’s coming up. It’s burning up.
It brings a sense of spontaneity and luckily it’s not the only one. Into the Twilight in itself has no solid structure, but it’s united in sounding weird.
It’s more into repeating instrumental motifs or reinvigorating the sounds it introduces, and yes, that includes the weird voice-like distortion, called the Miku Pedal.
And after the tranquil 30-second Dusk, comes the most chaotic and rocking song in this record: What’s the Trick.
Jack’s sole guitar riff carries the song’s speed, which graces between tumultuous and nonchalant,
The very busy percussion compliments it all, Jack himself injects a lot of life in its urgent walls of sound.
I don’t know if I can properly explain why this sounds so electrifying because seriously, it sounds amazing.
Then afterward I quite like the lo-fi rocker quality of That Was Then, This is Now, as it goes further into different punchy riffs in an erratic fashion.
And from the tail end, we have Eosophobia — Reprise, which certainly expound on a more traditional rock and dub rock direction.
Morning, Noon and Night is pretty good too with its main organ melody, it’s seared in my head, it definitely has a more muted, dreamy feel to it.
Lastly, Shedding My Velvet keeps a gentler vibe as a closer, though the drums are unusually snappy, it overall gives a more proper, tail-end encore feel to it, with Jack singing about his place in the industry.
Man, I missed out in first reviewing this back in April, because I’m confident in saying this is one of the finest records of the year.
Fear of the Dawn, for all its worth, is a pretty record that has as plenty of room for pure uncut rock as it has for strange explorations, no matter how polarizing.
I won’t be surprised if we start calling Jack White as the modern King of Rock.
This is an extended version of my album review on my Instagram: The Left Ear with Lee. Be sure to follow me on Medium and on Instagram. Thanks!
