This album fucking slaps, go give it a listen.

That’s it, that’s the review. A straightforward, no-nonsense banger like this requires no flowery preamble.

If you heard Jack’s all killer, no filler surprise album No Name in 2024 then you know exactly what to expect. He locked in for that record, delivering a whistle stop tour of some of the biggest riffs and best hooks of his career, reminding us all that he’s still the biggest rockstar of his generation. Frozen Charlotte is very much mined from the same creative vein; a perfect companion piece for No Name. ‘G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs’ feels like another sermon from ‘Archbishop Harold Holmes’, delivering a similar kind of raving fanatical passion and momentum. The heavy blues of ‘Derecho Demonico’ finds the guitar wailing like a theremin, while ‘Making Contact’ sounds as it it could’ve been a lost cut from Icky Thump. ‘Dollar Bill’ meanwhile dabbles in old-school delta blues, stripping it back to slide guitar in the verses, building up anticipation for when the drums come crashing back in on the chorus.

It’s far from the only love letter to the old school. There are more than a few nods here to the guitar legends that came before. ‘Nobody Knows’ is textbook Zeppelin, the lead riff on ‘Thick as Thieves’, and its interplay with the superb drums, reminds me of parts of Rush’s ‘La Villa Strangiato’, while the glorious closing track ‘Neighbors Blues’ feels like Jack’s take on Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’. It’s one thing to honour rock legends, it’s another to show why you deserve to rank among them. If you were harbouring any doubt that Jack’s the best damn riff slinger this side of Jimmy Page, then this is the record to dispel it. Somehow he has this bottomless well of tasty guitar licks that he’s able to draw from over and over again. On tracks like ‘There’s Nobody There’ and album highlight ‘You’ll Never Fix Me’ he just keeps them coming. Every time you think the song has shown you all it has to offer, he pulls another cool riff out his back pocket just to flex, casually waving around a spare hook that most bands would be glad to build their biggest hit around.

Granted, I don’t think Frozen Charlotte is quite as electrifying as its predecessor, but I think the surprise factor of No Name did a lot of heavy lifting. No one saw that record coming, but because of it, I came into this one already expecting Jack White’s second renaissance. I came into this album already expecting him to still somehow be delivering some of his best work, this far into an already acclaimed career – and that’s precisely what I got.