Album Reviews: Let’s Eat Grandma – Jack White – Fear the Dawn and

Let’s eat grandma – Two tapes

★★★★☆

Every Let’s Eat Grandma album feels like a milestone. Her swaggering 2016 debut me, twins introduced us to best friends Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth, two schoolgirls from Norwich who previously sounded like nothing. The record was boldly experimental but often dizzying in its disorder; a listening experience akin to spinning around in a playground and then vomiting. Two years later, their second album brought their best instincts, the whirring and schoolyard singing, purposefully into euphoric synth-pop. I am listening was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award.

Two tapes is another milestone for the duo. Their third record finds the inseparable couple separated. Written mostly individually, it explores the small cracks that show in their friendship as they grow up and grow apart. The result is remarkable. On the dark and moody title track, what was once a single braided stream of consciousness is now a ping-pong conversation. It’s Walton and Hollingworth trying to express themselves – and in turn trying to understand each other. Some songs are more personal. Watching You Go follows Hollingworth as she deals with the emotions she felt after her boyfriend Billy Clayton died of bone cancer in 2019 at the age of 22. It’s tender and tough, like pressing on a bruise that’s just beginning to heal.

Jack White – fear of dawn

★★☆☆☆

Jack White’s new solo album fear of dawn is basically a long jam session. Which is fine if it makes him happy. For the rest of us, it’s a bit of a drudgery. His signature snappy guitar growl has none of his usual maniacal attack; The single “Hi De Ho,” an attempt at homage to American jazz singer Cab Calloway, lacks ingenuity.

Even White’s normally exciting experimental moments are dull here. “The White Raven” doesn’t soar soaring so much as it plummets helplessly into a swamp of chugging bass, loose percussion and White’s frantic screeching. “I don’t even know what I’m doing this for,” he croaks on “What’s the Trick.” Sounds right. ROC