Fear of the Dawn
| Jack White
Fear of the Dawn
Fear of the Dawn is the fourth studio album by the American rock musician Jack White, released on April 8, 2022, through Third Man Records. The album was written in Nashville and recorded throughout 2021 at Third Man Studio. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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The Guardian
The Nashville-based impresario doubles down on his core creative tenets for an album that’s like nothing he’s done before.
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Pitchfork
On his first of two solo albums planned for this year, Jack White earns his eccentricity. An illogical fusion of blues-rock and carnival prog, this music is genuinely, imaginatively weird.
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Rolling Stone
With collaged guitar lines and Cab Calloway samples, the former White Stripe embraces his avant-garde side for a bizarre listening experience.
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Stereogum
I’m not sure Fear Of The Dawn qualifies as a wise dispatch or a revealing self-portrait, but it’s at least a wild ride — one that ensures the obligatory new songs between the classics on White’s setlists will hit hard, and one that has me curious about the subtler, folkier sounds of his upcoming Entering Heaven Alive. A lot of people will quite reasonably find this album unlistenable, but thinking of it as a fun left turn from a rock legend, a la McCartney III, has warmed me to it somewhat. If White insists on pushing his music to strange new places, at least he’s made sure it rocks extremely hard.
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The Fire Note
Each time I’ve listened through Fear Of The Dawn, I hear new elements that grab my attention, his diverse guitar sounds and tones interfacing with keyboards and other synths, a compelling bass line, the sonic pop of the snare when he’s using real drums. So much going on in this big messy collection of songs. Back in the Stripes he was in many ways a one-man-band, playing most of the instruments, writing and singing the songs, producing the end results, so it’s no surprise to hear him running the show here.
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Renowned for Sound
Fear of the Dawn is intense and unique. Capturing a stream of consciousness style that not only infiltrates lyrically but also instrumentally. The album is hysterical, experimental, and sonically brilliant. It’s Jack White returning to the man he once was… the saviour of rock n’ roll.
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NME
Having only half checked out of 2018 experiment ‘Boarding House Reach’, the former 'Stripe has compromised with an often purposeless follow-up.
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Paste Magazine
Rather, it’s a reminder of how interesting White’s music can be when he opens himself up as a conduit for his most eccentric musical impulses and lets his creative id run wild. Though it has its moments, Fear of the Dawn isn’t quite wild enough.
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AllMusic
Fear of the Dawn isn't often a pleasant listen, but it wasn't meant to be: it's a dark adventure, an album designed to provoke and stoke fears, not to soothe them.
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PopMatters
Fear of the Dawn is an intense aural barrage of rock from start to finish and may very well be Jack White’s finest solo output to date.
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Sputnik Music
Jack White is a mad scientist, creating Frankenstein-like songs with a plethora of stitched-together elements that come together with pounding vitality.
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American Songwriter
The vibrant, caffeinated production and pulsating sonics help these performances explode with dollops of the frazzled charm, roaring intensity, and sheer musicality we expect from a Jack White project. White, a faithful baseball fan, has knocked another one out of the park.
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Clash Magazine
An intriguing if not fully formed experiment, ‘Fear Of The Dawn’ is a defiantly un-Jack White statement, transgressing his role as a traditionalist in favour of something less logical. Packed with nervous energy, its haphazard dash to the finish line is nothing if not fascinating.
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No Ripcord
There's a fluidity and looseness to White's approach on Fear of the Dawn, giving the impression he's having a good time kicking it with his buds in his garage. Considering he's releasing a second album later this year, White might be setting us up with this raucous, more playful side of himself before going on whatever journey he feels like taking us next. He’s more than proven his bona fides at the point, which might explain why White makes even the most frantic arrangements go down easy. It’s somewhat expected of him to make these choices, but make no mistake: White never coasts.
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musicOMH
Breaks out the riffs and impressionistic songwriting for a distinctive display of bluesy rock that’s sometimes distinctive to a fault.
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Pop Goes the Weasel
‘Fear of the Dawn’ will go down as precisely nobody’s favourite Jack White album. Equally, you’ve got to root for an artist of his stature taking such a wild left turn – after-all, It’s that instinct for unpredictability that made him such an oddity in the first place.
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Ultimate Classic Rock
Fear of the Dawn's only real runoff from Boarding House Rules shows up on the zigzagging "Hi De Ho," which features A Tribe Called Quest rapper Q-Tip, and "Into the Twilight," a dialogue-sampling kitchen-sink rocker that reaches further than more typical songs like "What's the Trick." Otherwise, this is White not so much playing it safe (he's incapable of that) as it is White exploring familiar territory through some new and occasionally exciting means. In other words, it's business as usual for one of modern rock's most exhilarating artists.
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The Needle Drop
Jack White's keeping it strange on Fear of the Dawn.
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Stereoboard
It’s sensational, forward-facing pop music that reminds us why White occupies such a particular place in the public imagination. He’s a terrifically gifted and unique entertainer, alongside being a sensational composer and producer.
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Mystic Sons
While it is still a very fun and enjoyable collection, 'Fear Of The Dawn' does have its fair share of half-baked ideas that take up a little too much room on here. But with plenty of catchy hooks and distinctive flavour, he has at least produced something that will serve him well as we await his next full-length later this year.
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Spill Magazine
Winding things up with “Shedding my Velvet”, White brings in the spooky, slow vibes as he sings about shedding an alter-ego for one’s real self. Just like that, this album, which clocks in around the 40-mins mark, is done in all its oddly brilliant glory.
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Medium
Jack White’s “Fear Of The Dawn” Fuels Hard-Rocking Riffs.
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Under the Radar Magazine
Whatever his influences, White, now 46 years old, makes good on his promise to keep evolving as an artist. For a long time, he longed to capture the rustic simplicity of the past. Now, he’s fully embracing the present and, by extension, playing a part in forging the future. Is this Jack White’s best album? With De Stiji and White Blood Cells out there, that’s a really tough sell, especially for something as off the wall as this. But it is his most interesting.
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Slant Magazine
Jack White’s Fear of the Dawn Deftly Balances Experimentalism and Melodicism.
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The Rice Thresher
The first of Jack White’s 2022 album releases embraces the weirder sides of White’s creativity to create an experimental work that plays with the rules of rock music and improves with every listen.
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DIY Magazine
Ferociously heavy, wonderfully weird.
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The AU Review
Jack White proves Fear of the Dawn is some of his finest work to date in blockbuster Brooklyn set.
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Cryptic Rock
It is true White has a natural flair for the theatrical with all his projects, but Fear of the Dawn could be one of his most ambitious projects to date. His music has an unforgettable edge and, at times, otherworldly qualities. Continually tapping into the boundless well of creativity while raising the bar to be at the top of his game.
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The Arts Desk
The urgency is felt throughout, the experiments and replenishments of his beloved guitar’s possibilities resulting in compulsive rock.
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Glide Magazine
Jack White Goes In Sonic Overdrive On Blistering ‘Fear of the Dawn’.
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Exclaim!
By splitting his 2022 albums into two distinct projects and saving his quieter material for Entering Heaven Alive, White has delivered his best release since 2012's Blunderbuss, and one of the most consistently exciting albums in his 25-year-career.
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Flood Magazine
In contrast with his most incisive work with The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, the first of White’s two planned solo albums in 2022 feels based on the ideas of a man who’s lost without equity and union.
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The Daily Californian
Whether he’s dying his hair electric blue or spontaneously marrying his partner on stage, White has established an outlandish streak. On Fear of the Dawn, his anomalous spirit shines through, and it yields generous rewards. Rather than remaining within the boundaries of genre and form, White bends and breaks the rules — unsteady, as he goes.
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