Just over two months after its release, and nearing the half-way point of 2022, now is a good time to take a moment to acknowledge the album of the year (so far), Jack White’s amazing fourth solo LP, Fear of the Dawn. Building on the experimentation of his previous album, Boarding House Reach, but tempering some of that record’s weirdness with more traditional rock sounds and changes, White’s new collection packs fast-paced and up-tempo numbers nearly straight through, includes not more than 30 second of filler, and rocks hard enough to please arty alternative types and blues-rock historians alike. Fear of the Dawn is both an excellent rock album in its own right and is also the first of a two-part concept piece, shared with the soon-to-be-released Entering Heaven Alive, which is said to be a much quieter, acoustic-based album to balance the louder, noise-driven tracks featured here. Fear of the Dawn captures the tones of a dark, anxious night and flows well as a unified piece with transitions sometimes unnoticeable between tracks reminiscent of some of Rick Rubin’s best productions.
Performing many of the instruments and vocal tracks himself with occasional support from his current backing band and a few notable guests, White is in complete control from start to finish here. Kicking things off with the first single, “Taking Me Back,” a noisy synth-rock jam that sets the stage for most of the rest of the album, White carefully weaves in various tones and textures from track to track that make each song unique while maintaining a shared thread, both in the tone of the production and within the titles and lyrics of the songs, most commenting on the night, the moon, the darkness, and the coming morning in some way. The title track is a blistering garage-punk assault that packs the most attitude here, along with “What’s the Trick?” from the top of side two. “The White Raven” features a number of seemingly disjointed guitar sections that work well together when assembled. “Hi-De-Ho,” inspired by and including an intro sample from the legendary Cab Calloway, features guest vocals from Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, sitting in with White after befriending and working with him on Tribe’s final album a few years ago and allowing White to continue exploring elements of hip hop within his own music. “Eosophobia” is probably the stand-out guitar moment of the album and ended up being jammed out so much and so long in the studio that after a fade-out ending, the song fades in again as a reprise with even more guitar acrobatics on the second side. “Into the Twilight,” one of the album's most experimental and non-traditional songs, is another extended jam session but this time built around samples from The Manhattan Transfer, perhaps one of the least-predictable and least-hip artists to consider putting together with White, and a notable quote from the late poet, William S. Burroughs. The oddness of the musical pairing only makes the brilliant groove of the song more pronounced.
Jack White’s virtuosic guitar playing continues to impress and may just now be reaching its technical peak. White seems to control his primary instrument with such effortless fluidity it almost sounds more natural for him to do than singing or maybe even breathing at this point. With respect to the great Josh Homme and his assorted guitar-playing friends in the extended Queens of the Stone Age camp, no other guitarist has better established themselves and their unique, signature style better than White, and none better connect the best elements of Jimmy Page with the innovative experimentation of Tom Morello. White’s sound goes beyond production techniques and carefully-monitored settings on his equipment; it comes through clearly just in the songwriting itself, regardless of the volume, tempo, the players on the track or the instruments being played.
After a short instrumental interlude at the album’s halfway point (“Dusk”), the album’s final single, “What’s the Trick?” takes center stage and re-establishes the tone of classic White tracks such as “That Black Bat Licorice,” “Ice Station Zebra,” and “Everything You’ve Ever Learned,” partly scolding the listener while attempting to inspire action, ambition, or even White possibly speaking to himself in the third person. “That Was Then, This Is Now” and “Morning, Noon, and Night” both fit the vibe and flow of the album well and certainly rock plenty hard but don’t stand out quite as memorably as the rest of the songs. Having said that, even those tracks are immaculately produced and mixed as the rest of them (primarily by White himself). The album’s much quieter closing number, “Shedding My Velvet,” has been explained to be a preview of the next LP and a bridge from the end of the louder portion into the quieter collection of music ahead. Those songs will presumably share thematical and lyrical content as well, but it will be interesting to put the two together and to see how White organized this large batch of original songs that were written and recorded around the same time over the last year-and-a-half.
Fans of White’s many other albums and projects will feel right at home with Fear of the Dawn, and its ultra-modern, sleek, rock sound will no doubt grab the attention of younger rock fans and curious parties who may only remember White’s work on a particular song or with a certain group in the past (or who may not yet realize he is the songwriting genius behind the inescapable “Seven Nation Army,” which long ago transcended from rock history to folk song status). Those who may have felt some of the experimentation on Lazaretto and Boarding House Reach were not quite their cup of tea may find a good portion of Fear of the Dawn more to their liking with its balance of traditional elements with occasional experimental sounds or arrangements. Without a doubt, this collection of songs is the album of 2022 so far, and probably the best rock record of the last year-and-a-half, overall. Having said that, could the second half of this batch of music be as good or even better? It’s notable that in these post-modern days where rock has splintered and fragmented into countless subgenres which keep most new acts from breaking through to the degree of new artists in the ‘90s and ‘00s, Jack White’s greatest competition may be himself.
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