“Welcome to the Garden of Eden,” spits Jack White in his fullest trademark preacher squawk on the chugging ‘Frozen Charlotte’ opener ‘G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs’. “There’s nobody here but me and you – so what we gonna be eating?” Hold off on that order of forbidden apple for two for now. “Welcome to the end of the world,” he beckons, warning that the end of the beginning is night with “nobody left but one boy and one girl and one other” who “can’t live like a sister and brother”. Could it be a callback to that once-mysterious relationship between himself and The White Stripes’ drummer Meg? Either way, enter this into the lore of White at his most biblical and cheeky.
READ MORE: Little Grandad: the alt-country band speeding towards stardom
Work these days from the generational polymath comes around thick and fast, and it may still feel like we’re living in the same universe of 2024’s fiery surprise album ‘No Name’ due to the Third Man guitar wizard seemingly being in a state of work and creativity, via constant touring, art exhibitions or releasing new gizmos and fancy vinyl. But what’s next? While his seventh solo effort ‘Frozen Charlotte’ may have been announced quietly with a wink via an online series on the Third Man Release Lab, the album itself is far from unassuming. She’s a beast of sorts, but still playful.
After the ambitious companion records of 2022’s blues-spined ‘Fear Of The Dawn’ and the tender folk of ‘Entering Heaven Alive’, it felt like White was scorching the earth clear on the Iggy Pop via Led Zeppelin punk rush of ‘No Name’. Now it feels like the raconteur is building upwards on a solid base of classic rock. “Let’s start again,” he says in one breath on ‘G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs’, offering a new dawn in the next after the apocalypse. “I got one rule,” he barks, moving things along on ‘Derecho Demonico’, “I don’t start nothing, nothing that I cannot finish”. This is White’s world, and he’s throwing lightning bolts.
To build this universe, White has a little help from his friends in live band with Bobby Emmett on keys, drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Dominic Davis. From the dizzying ‘Lazaretto’ echoes of ‘There’s Nobody There’, the stomp-along ‘Raising The Grain’, raw and freewheelin’ ‘You’ll Never Fix Me’ and swampy radio-destroyer ‘Dollar Bill’ to the aptly titled ‘She’s In A Frenzy’, these garage rock Avengers lay on a rich tapestry of luxurious classic rock around White’s ‘70s-indebted piercing riffs and absurdist soapboxing. Lacking the fire and variety of ‘No Name’, the album loses steam with same-y meanderers like ‘Nobody Knows’, ‘Thick As Thieves’ and ‘All Alone Again’ getting a little lost in the sludge.
Still, White shines when he’s having a laugh while putting the world to rights particularly as he lampoons those “feeling content making content” online in the punchy ‘Making Contact’ and on the real gnarl and snarl of ‘I Can’t Believe What I’m Hearing’ where he spits against all the “click clack, back track, tick tock, smack talk”. It may not rank among his classic work, but it’s good fun, it’s gonna really be something live, and it works to show that White doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel when he can give you one hell of a ride on his own.
Details
Record label: Third Man
Release date: July 10, 2026
The post Jack White – ‘Frozen Charlotte’ review: cheeky classic rock meant for the stage appeared first on NME.
