Jack White’s “No Name”: A Surprising, Thrilling and Passionate Return to Garage Rock

The surprise release of Jack White’s new album “No Name” is being celebrated as a raw, electrifying return to the roots of The White Stripes.

Jack White performing during a White Stripes concert in 2007. Credit: Lindsey Turner via Flickr

Jack White isn’t a new face in the world of rock music; however, the surprise release of his latest album “No Name” marks a thrilling new chapter for the master guitarist. Mixing the best of both worlds of his career — The White Stripes’ raw garage rock sound and his complex, bold solo records — White’s “No Name” is the best rock record of the year and possibly his hard rock masterpiece. 

White, best known for being the energetic frontman of The White Stripes, continued his revolutionary sound into the bands The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs after The White Stripes duo split up in 2011. He began his solo career with the release of his first album “Blunderbuss” in 2012. Furthermore, White created his own record company, Third Man Records, pushing his love of vinyl to new heights. His second solo record, 2014’s “Lazaretto,” held the record for most first-week record sales for seven years — unsurprisingly, he was beaten by Taylor Swift.

Recently, White has experimented with his sound, most notably with the divisive, to some brilliant, release of his 2018 experimental rock album “Boarding House Reach.” Following a reuniting of The Raconteurs in 2019, he released two solo albums in 2022, “Fear of the Dawn” and “Entering Heaven Alive,” with the former being a nocturnal trip of hard rock bliss, while its follow-up was a soft, folky mirror of acoustic rock. Nevertheless, all of his previous releases feel like they have been building up to “No Name.”

Although rumblings of a new release were apparent this year, there wasn’t a single released before the album came to streaming platforms on Aug. 2. The album was given away for free to people who visited Third Man Record locations in Nashville, Tenn., Detroit, Mich. and London, England weeks before the online release. Unmarked, sleeved white records were handed out with the only labeling of “No Name” in blue, with side A of the album named “Heaven and Hell” and side B dubbed “Black and Blue.”

The excitement and genuine surprise of “No Name” is a rare sight in the modern world of music, as leaks and long marketing campaigns usually force an album to come out of hiding. People going home with their unmarked records and ripping them to share with others, encouraged by Third Man Records, was something special. As the record label described via an Instagram post, “Today you have proven that the quiet rumblings of something mysterious can grow into the beautiful experience of a community sharing the excitement and energy of music & art.”

“No Name’s” idiosyncratic release is complimented by the sound of the record. It’s a raw, loud, mean, gritty, passionate, rip-roaring 43 minutes of rock, all the while being immaculately produced and full of witty, weird and atmospheric writing. Boasting Dawning White’s bluest solo record cover yet — picturing a blue-drenched ground — it reflects the dreamy, twilight world of the record. 

Kicking off with the first track, “Old Scratch Blues,” it propels the listener into a slow guitar riff, while drastically descending into deeper, harder-hitting riffs; as the song becomes more threatening, White assures the listener, “So tell me everything you know, I’m not trying to alarm you or harm you, But is there something that I need to know?” The second song “Bless Yourself” is an electric, taunting track aimed at the egoistical, so vain to the point that “If God’s too busy then I’ll bless myself.” 

“That’s How I’m Feeling” will undoubtedly be the most popular track off of “No Name” — it’s disgustingly catchy and bite-sized to the point where it is infectiously re-listenable. Fans of White’s early Stripes days, with songs like “Fell in Love With a Girl” and “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” will feel comfortably at home here. 

A few of Jack White's solo releases, from left to right: 2012's "Blunderbluss," 2018's "Boarding House Reach" and 2022's "Fear of the Dawn." Credit: Andrew Breen ‘25

The pacing of “No Name” is phenomenal, as it spirals down its tracklist; there isn’t a particular song that breaks the album’s flow. The fourth track, “It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking),” is White’s writing at his most playful, reminding that “As bad as we got, it sure must be rough on rats,” backed by an ascending and descending off-kilter riff. 

The album’s fifth track is its best, which is an undeniably hard choice among a record with this many excellent songs. “Archbishop Harold Holmes” is one of the most bizarre songs created by White in his career — dawning the character named after the track, he becomes a quick-talking, God-fearing man of the cloth, determined to “...tear all the walls down, doesn’t matter if it’s a large town or a small town, just like Joshua and the fabled walls of Jericho, I’m here to tear down the institution.” The song acts as a letter, persuading the reader to join Holmes’ mission, and by the end, the elevating tension of the track is a ‘lightning in a bottle’ accomplishment that makes me a committed follower.

“Bombing Out” is White’s noisiest and punkiest track on “No Name,” as it sounds ripped straight from the Stripes’ debut in 1999. “What’s the Rumpus” is yet another bouncy, bold track starting with a brief snippet of the sound of plane dive-bombing. Continuing the dark descent of the record, it declares the revelation “…that the truth’s become opinion these days.” 

“No Name’s” B-side maintains the quality of the record. “Tonight (Was a Long Time Ago)” and “Underground” are both full of brilliant musicianship — particularly in the back half of both songs, where White switches up the tempo. For example, in “Underground,” he unleashes a flurry of slide guitar riffs, before throwing the listener back into the conclusion of the track. 

The final four tracks are already the most underrated of “No Name” — as of now, the top streaming songs of the album are dominated by the A-side. “Number One With A Bullet” is another bolting track that harnesses that early Stripes sound, “Morning At Midnight” sounds like it was recorded between two glaciers holding a sound that is both echoey and lucifugous and lastly, “Missionary” is White at his most bonkers, full of innuendos and a garage rock temperament as it pushes the listener into the final song of the album. 

“Terminal Archenemy Endling” is just as enigmatic as it sounds: haunting, swooning, pained and nostalgic. Beginning and ending with the yelping of a pack of dogs, White concludes with the tragic gut punch, “How do you feel when you felt it all now? And how do you see when you’ve seen it all?” 

“No Name” is White’s best work, arguably, of his career — a brilliantly composed and passionately performed piece of hard rock ecstasy, proving that the future of rock is in very good hands.