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.
