Considering that he’s been one of the biggest forces in music in the twenty-first century, it’s remarkable how Jack White’s music is rooted in the middle of the last century. At his best, whether originally with The White Stripes, now solo, or his super-group The Raconteurs, White not only channels the blues-rock that made rock rock, but revives it for this century/millennium. While he’s made mistakes, the new No Name is not one of them, bringing the Jack White you’ve known & loved, while also feeling viscerally now.
With the first licks of opener “Old Scratch Blues”, you know what kind of record No Name is gonna be – and you’re into it. While much of modern blues can just feel like a retread (sometimes even White himself has suffered from that in the past), songs such as “Scratch’, “That’s How I’m Feeling”, and “Missionary” are revived, alive blues. And White then takes it up another notch when he channels his own almost revivalist-preacher aspect (shades of the late, great Mojo Nixon, if in-your-face, not sarcastic) in killer tracks like “It’s Rough On Rats (If You’re Asking)” and “Archbishop Harold Holmes”. Meanwhile, there’s also the driving procession of “What’s the Rumpus?”, frenetic “Number One With a Bullet”, and White’s signature explosion, “Tonight (Was a Long Time Ago)”.
There might be other stars who fill stadiums, but White is able to get people to put away their phones (QRO live review), bringing back the blues-rock that rocked the world on No Name.
