Jack White, Frozen Charlotte

★★★★

All fire and flash, Frozen Charlotte finds Jack White continuing what he started with No Name two years ago. He’s no longer putting on airs, neither aiming for the middlebrow respectability of Blunderbuss nor immersing himself in the proggy pretension that bogged down Boarding House Reach and enlivened Fear of the Dawn/Entering Heaven Alive. He’s returned to his old White Stripes stomping ground, cranking up the amplifiers and daring his rhythm section to keep pace.

Frozen Charlotte may be cut from the same cloth as No Name, but it hangs differently on White’s bones. It’s a harder, nastier affair, teeming with accusations and recriminations. White crows to a lover “You’ll Never Fix Me,” a sentiment echoed