Eccentric rock troubadour Jack White dropped his latest single “You Got Me Searching” this past Friday in trademark inscrutable fashion – that is to say, in this case, with absolutely no warning. White, formerly of The Dead Weather, the Raconteurs, and most famously The White Stripes along with “sister” (actually ex-wife) Meg White, is now several years deep into a highly successful solo career in his own right. “You Got Me Searching” arrives hot on the heels of August’s No Name LP, and in anticipation of an upcoming international tour beginning shortly after the turn of the New Year. White’s personal label, Third Man Records, revealed “You Got Me Searching” to the world with little else but the promise of an old-school 7″ physical release – just the kind of anachronism one would expect a man who has on numerous occasions made clear his deep affinity for the music of yore, instruments, artists, physical mediums and all. “You Got Me Searching” is itself a raw, raucous blues-rock barnburner that exemplifies White’s classic tastes, as well as his own low-fidelity idiosyncrasies.
“You Got Me Searching” wastes no time in delivering its snarling, heavily distorted main riff, matched blow-for-blow by thunderous drum accompaniment. White’s reverb-laden howls round out the tumultuous atmosphere before it gives way to a throbbing guitar pedal tone, mimicked by the percussion and punctuated by brief chorded punches, then ping-ponging back to the track’s opening throes and back again in a relentless volley that continues until the song’s close. “You Got Me Searching” derives sonic strength and sense of urgency from this binary simplicity, accentuated by its sparse instrumentation. One wonders if White has made something of a return to a Stripes-style two-piece; what appears to be a bass line is present for brief moments doubling the main riff, but it’s similitude with the lead guitar line suggests some classic White Stripes octave trickery in the vein of their seminal hit “Seven Nation Army,” whose famous “bass” line was actually just White’s guitar altered with an effects pedal.
Regardless, the effect is that of pure rock and roll adrenaline, at once exciting and deeply familiar. The obvious comparison to draw is to the riff-heavy, blues-based rock of the ’70s. It’s tempting to just call the proceedings “Zeppelin-esque” and leave it at that, but that kind of oversimplification would be doing both the song and it’s stylistic predecessors a disservice in sheer brevity. In fact, “You Got Me Searching” owes just as much to the unrefined proto-punk of The Stooges (another well-attested influence of White’s) or the distorted guitar theatrics of Hendrix as it does to Zeppelin, and it shares basic DNA with any number of guitar-driven tunes derived from the same idiom. Heart’s “Barracuda”, Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl,” and even The White Stripe’s own “Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine” all spring to mind after a cursory listen, and surely a near-endless string of further associations could be drawn.
The point is this: “You Got Me Searching ” is a song deeply woven into the sort of well-worn blues-rock vestments that White dons like old leather. It’s breakneck pace and high-octane delivery, however, dissuade any notions of recognition from devolving into disregard, and its vintage tendencies never hinder the track’s raw energy from grabbing the listener by the metaphorical throat. In fact, that superficial sense of familiarity only serves to further’s the song’s immediacy. “You Got Me Searching” instantly acclimates the listener to its tried-and-true tonal vernacular, then promptly throws them into its exhilarating clamor headfirst, as fast as electricity.