When the eosophobia hits – Jack White: “Fear of the Dawn”

By mid-2022, it was of course clear to everyone that the single of that year had to be Wet Leg’s quirky, danceable indie hit “Chaise Longue”. But to me, an even bigger event in music history was that the divine genius…

(And this is where I should add that I don’t toss around the term “divine genius” lightly. In today’s pop music, I recognize at most a handful of divine geniuses.)

And with that out of the way: I’m talking about the divine genius Jack White’s fourth solo album “Fear of the Dawn”—and I’m still struggling to pick my jaw up off the floor.

It’s not just that White is the king of guitar riffs (if you’ve ever heard an entire football stadium sing a guitar riff in unison, there’s a 99% chance it was his “Seven Nation Army”—now there’s an acheivement!). Which of course wouldn’t matter as myuch if he weren’t also a deeply inspired songwriter in the most classic sense.

Jack White’s creativity is so vibrant and untamed that, much like with Mozart (yes, I’m comparing him to fucking Mozart—deal with it!), there’s a new surprise waiting for the listener around every corner. I loved the previous album “Boarding House Reach,” though I do understand if some found it a bit too chaotic. On “Fear of the Dawn,” White has found a balance again, so even the craziest ideas still have their feet firmly planted in an intelligible song structure.

White’s music grew out of garage rock. But being as musically gifted and intelligent as he is, he’s gradually incorporated more and more styles into his rough-and-tumble sonic universe. You can hear echoes of blues, funk, reggae—yes, maybe even the much-maligned prog rock (is that Gentle Giant making an appearance in the intro to “Eosophobia”?). And he’s no Luddite either—by now, White manages to integrate sampling, digital editing, and even synthesizers into his noisy yet organic soundscape.

(And—unless I’ve completely failed at Googling—it seems that the now fully grown wunderkind plays all the instruments himself. Can that really be true?)

Listen to “Fear of the Dawn” at: https://soundcloud.com/jackwhiteiii/sets/fear-of-the-dawn-1

And as if to further demonstrate Jack White’s boundless creativity, yet another album—the acoustic “Entering Heaven Alive”—was released just a few months later. That’s the spirit!