CD of The Week

Almost exactly two years ago, Jack White released his sixth solo album, No Name, which focused on big guitar riffs, raw production, and not much else. No left-field sonic experiments, just a focused, raging rock record from one of the top artists of his generation. Jack spent the next two years touring on and off behind No Name, with an induction for The White Stripes into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along the way. Earlier this year, he released a new two-song single, coinciding with his appearance on the Jack Black/Jack White episode of Saturday Night Live. Those two new tracks were an appetizer for a full new album, soon revealed as Frozen Charlotte.

Opener “G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs” is a wide-eyed take on the story of Adam and Eve (hence the broken ribs) that goes off the rails when Jack starts raving about dime store novels and a frozen Charlotte. (If you were wondering about the album title, a “frozen Charlotte” was a cheaply made doll with no moving parts that was popular over a century ago.) The flipside to “G.O.D…” was “Derecho Demonico,” a stomping blues-rock jam where Jack declares, “I got one rulе, I don't start nothing …that I cannot finish … but what I do, and how I do, and why I do it, it’s all none of your business.”

“Raising The Grain” and “Nobody Knows” are among the many tunes that are a swirling blur of Jack’s guitar work and Bobby Emmett’s organ playing. Unlike most of his solo records, Jack worked with nearly the same lineup on every track, the same musicians he’s been touring with for the past two years. This further gives Frozen Charlottethe feel of his live show, where he and his band take a song and jam it out in wild directions. Drummer Patrick Keeler, best known for teaming with Jack in The Raconteurs, sounds incredible throughout the album as well.

Most of the lyrics on Frozen Charlotte are vague enough to be unclear as to what Jack is railing about. One could read his recent, well-publicized marital troubles into “You’ll Never Fix Me” or “I Can’t Believe What I’m Hearing.” And “Making Contact” appears to be an attack on late-stage capitalism, current political winds, and even A.I. – “Have the computer be my ears and eyes / So many numbers to memorize / Too many brain cells to hypnotize / The cells arе dead, but I feel alive, yeah.” Then there’s album closer “Neighbors Blues,” which appears to be exactly that – a blues song complaining about nosy neighbors.

Frozen Charlotte could easily and simply be described as No Name Part 2, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s a bit more raw and loose than the last record. But it’s incredible how Jack has been able to keep his Led Zeppelin-garage-blues-punk sound so vibrant and lively after all these years, while others operating in the same world haven’t.

Of course, Jack’s 2026 tour plans won’t bring him to Philadelphia, but he’ll be playing pretty much everywhere else you can think of around the globe this year.