Jack White returns with hard-hitting, fuzz-drenched new single, Taking Me Back

Jack White performs at the Loretta Lynn: An All-Star Birthday Celebration Concert at Bridgestone Arena on April 1, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee
(Image credit: John Shearer/Getty Images/Essential Broadcast Media, LLC)

Just a few weeks after he opened the London Third Man Records store in grand style with a surprise set atop Damien Hirst’s balcony, Jack White is back with a new single.

The new tune – Taking Me Back is White's first new solo offering since his acclaimed 2018 full-length, Boarding House Reach. Featured in the new trailer for the video game Call of Duty: Vanguard, the song was produced and recorded by White at Third Man Studios in Nashville, and features him on vocals and all instruments.

If you've followed White at all – whether through his star-making work with the White Stripes, his eclectic solo career, or his releases with the Raconteurs and Dead Weather – the elements of Taking Me Back will be familiar to you.

The song storms out of the gate with a fuzzed-out explosion of a riff, backed confidently by White's funk-influenced drumming. White's guitar leads, meanwhile, offer more of the pitch-shiftin' zaniness and smoking fretboard runs he's made his name with over the years.

Not content with merely releasing one version of Taking Me Back though, White also chose to display his softer side with the simultaneously-released Taking Me Back (Gently), a country-folk version of the song, complete with bluesy acoustic playing and some absolutely phenomenal fiddle work.

Lovely as it is, we can see why this particular version didn't exactly fit the Call of Duty vibe. Perhaps White's saving it for the soundtrack to a hypothetical Red Dead Redemption 3? One can dream...

You can check out the hard-rock Taking Me Back above and the acoustic version of the song below.

In the meantime, if this new material from White leaves you wanting to learn more about his rig, he recently launched a new website in which users can explore the craziest and coolest of his custom electric guitars, among other custom-built pieces of gear.

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**

Join now for unlimited access

US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year

UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year 

Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Prices from £2.99/$3.99/€3.49

Jackson Maxwell

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.