As reported on Metro Times, Detroit’s Jack White recently dropped a surprise album without any press. Unsuspecting visitors to White’s Third Man Records were handed a blank-sleeved LP, with the record only bearing the words No Name.
White’s latest album is a live-feeling, unpolished throwback to his early White Stripes albums. The guitarist-singer-upholsterer’s work remains strikingly human while other musicians increasingly turn to an AI voice generator.
Reports have claimed Kanye West may have used AI for a verse on his latest album with Ty Dolla $ign, Vultures 2.
No Name has been called “terrific” and “one of his very best”, but given the lack of press around the album, there’s only so much we know about it.
Here are three things we do know.
White worked pretty much on his own
Rolling Stone reported that “White has spent the past year recording, producing, and mixing the album himself at his Third Man Studio.”
He did actually bring in other people to engineer, master, and mix the album.
But resisting outside producers is nothing new for White. After the White Stripes’ 1999 self-titled debut, which was co-produced by White and Jim Diamond, White had the producer’s chair to himself for the band’s next five albums.
White’s DIY attitude has been a theme throughout his career. The lo-fi sound of early White Stripes records was a core characteristic of the band.
White didn’t even get his publicist involved with the new album – they said they were “as surprised as everyone else” about the release.
The drummer of The Raconteurs plays on the album
Patrick Keeler is drummer of The Raconteurs, the band that coincided with latter day White Stripes, before they released albums Consolers of the Lonely and Help Us Stranger after the last Stripes LP (Icky Thump in 2007).
On No Name, Keeler plays with a touch of Stripes drummer Meg White’s raw minimalism. The album, similar to earlier White Stripes material, is largely stripped down, live-sounding, blues-influenced rock. Third track ‘That’s How I’m Feeling’ is built off a bright, catchy guitar riff and Keeler’s simple two-and-four snare pattern in the verses. The outro features very White Stripes-esque guitar-and-drums playing in unison.
No Name was recorded on White’s own analogue equipment
The album was recorded at Third Man Studio in Nashville, which largely uses White’s beloved analogue equipment.
Due to the lack of information released with the album, we don’t know exactly how much was put to analogue tape and how many digital conveniences were used. But we do know White used his own studio, and we certainly know he’s a lover of analogue gear.
White told Sound On Sound back in 2014 that he feels he was “born in the wrong generation.”
“Analogue is the medium of all the kinds of music that I am really fond of,” White said. “Form follows function. You have to ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish. What are you trying to make it sound like? When you are recording and producing, you are aiming for something and if you want vibe, warmth, soulfulness, things like that, you will always be drawn back to analogue.”
White did say, though, that musicians can use newer, digital recording techniques in interesting ways. “The new Kanye West album,” he said [Yeezus, at the time], “is obviously recorded on Pro Tools but sounds unbelievable, because it is very simple and there aren’t a lot of components going on, and this really allows the songs to shine. Plus he mixed using analogue components.”
White did admit to holding a bit of a contrarian attitude in an interview with the Guardian in 2018. “If it was 1999,” White said, “and I was asked: ‘What do you think about digital music?’, it was my job to say: ‘Is that what everyone else is doing? Then I don’t like it.”
“If the world had been into analogue, I would’ve said I loved digital. As an artist it is your job not to take the easy way out.”
Taking the easy way out is not what White did with No Name – reviews have commented that he made a brave move releasing material of a similar style to the much beloved White Stripes.
If it was a gamble, it paid off (if White even cares about critics’ views, that is). The album currently holds an 86/100 score on Metacritic, which indicates “Universal acclaim”.
Variety said, “It’s the freshest and most exciting rock and roll album to come down the pike in years” and Glide Magazine said that although No Name “retreats (…) back into the safety of his bluesy rawk”, White came up with “ripping results”.
