Two solo artists this week. Former White Stripes frontman Jack White dropped a surprise record in August. Singer-songwriter Cassandra Jenkins is back with another album of pretty new age ramblings (not an insult).
Jack White
No Name
2024, 8/10
I’m probably not the best qualified to review Jack White’s latest solo effort. I haven’t checked in with the Detroit rocker since 2005’s Get Behind Me Satan, his penultimate album with his duo The White Stripes.
White employed an unusual release strategy for No Name. Unannounced, he arranged for it to be given away for free to Record Store Day punters in Detroit, London, and Nashville. It was given away to customers who’d bought another record, with minimal labelling that didn’t betray its origins. This unusual strategy helped to build hype via word of mouth.
No Name returns to the bluesy garage rock of The White Stripes, albeit with a bass player and a more sophisticated drummer than Meg White. It’s a little samey, but it’s a massive burst of adrenaline. There are enough propulsive riffs and clever lyrical turns of phrase.
It’s an assassination of the already dead
Number one with a bullet
But the reputation of a rotten apple
Is too loud to hear now
No Name is surprisingly enjoyable, a welcome return from a charismatic raconteur.
Cassandra Jenkins
My Light, My Destroyer
2024, 8.5/10
New York’s Cassandra Jenkins comes from a musical family. Her parents worked on cruise ships as musicians, and her brother is in the band Morningsiders. As a teen she played folk festivals with her family, touring in a giant silver bus.
Her breakthrough album slipped out in 2021. In the year after the COVID pandemic, it was a welcome panacea, embracing nature. On My Light, My Destroyer, Jenkins ventures into space, with dialogues about Venus and Betelgeuse.
Musically, she ramps up the diversity on My Light, My Destroyer. Sometimes there are 1980s new age textures, with synths and saxophones that could have come from a 1980s Van Morrison record. On other songs like ‘Clams Casino’ and ‘Petco’, she’s diving into a 1990s alt-rock sound.
Jenkins is still making beguiling music, and adding some more muscle to her sound is welcome.
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I previously listened to some of Jack White’s album but missed Cassandra Jenkins. While perhaps not surprisingly the former appealed to me right away, I can’t come to an immediate conclusion about the latter. It’s the kind of music that takes more time to explore, especially songs like “Delphinium Blue”, unlike “Devotion” and “Clams Casino,” which speak to me more immediately.