Credits:

Jack White

One of two records Jack White wrote and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fear of the Dawn is a brittle, cacophonic affair, a claustrophobic exploration of the titular idea. White came across the notion of eosophobia — a Greek term for dreading the dawn — then used that concept as the backbone for his heavier, weirder songs, leaving the softer material for the subsequent Entering Heaven Alive. Hes so besotted with this phobia that hes titled a quarter of the albums 12 songs after it, then wrote additional songs called “Into the Twilight,” “Dusk,” and “Morning, Noon and Night,” giving Fear of the Dawn a thematic lyrical thread to accompany its arty freak-outs. Many of Whites familiar tropes are readily apparent here — heavy-footed blues stomps, manic vocal wails, cascading waves of guitar fuzz — but the execution and feel are different here, as if the analog warrior has plunged himself into digital madness. Ac