Jack White Entering Heaven Alive LP

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the December 2022 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Entering Heaven Alive is the fifth studio album from Jack White, founding member of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather. True to his DIY roots, this record was recorded at White's Third Man Studio throughout 2021, mastered by Third Man Mastering, and released by Third Man Records.

Where Fear of the Dawn is coiled, nervy, and tense, an explosion of paranoia and dread, Entering Heaven Alive is quieter and contemplative - the music that arrives after the dawn, as it were. Jack White does pluck and strum an acoustic guitar throughout Entering Heaven Alive, sometimes conjuring ghosts of the softest White Stripes moments, but the arrangements on the album are detailed, spirited, and, in their own way, as adventurous as their counterparts on Fear of the Dawn....The musical range is remarkable yet not flashy: the detours and rambles all feel as if they stem from a natural stream of consciousness. Entering Heaven Alive feels of a piece with White's previous work, yet the ideas are synthesized and executed in fresh, inventive ways...

The opening track, 'A Tip from You to Me,' is a quiet piano ballad that sets the album's tone. By the time White introduces a string section on the playfully melodic 'Help Me Along,' he's departed from the kick-ass rocker his fans know. The mood shifts somewhat with 'I've Got You Surrounded (with My Love),' which features a funky vibe, processed guitars, and multi-tracked vocals. The fanciful mellotron-dappled, flower-pop parody 'Queen of the Bees' would fit easily on a Donovan album. But White turns serious on 'A Tree on Fire from Within,' which sets up the contemplative 'If I Die Tomorrow' and the confessional 'Please God, Don't Tell Anyone.' The closer, 'Taking Me Back (Gently),' is a folksy version of a fuzz-drenched rocker from Fear of the Dawn, replete with country fiddle, honky-tonk piano, and Gypsy-style guitar. At 47, White has matured, and this soft side is a welcome development.