Jack White has unveiled the first new, worldwide commercially released White Stripes song since 2008. The lost recording is entitled ‘City Lights’ and will appear on White’s new compilation, Jack White Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016.
The 26-track, double-CD compilation album will drop Friday, 9th September and is jam-packed with acoustic recordings from throughout White’s discography, including his days with The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, as well as his solo career.
‘City Lights’ was originally intended for The White Stripes’s 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan, but was forgotten until White revisited the album for its 2015 vinyl reissue for Record Store Day, finally completing the recording in 2016.
“This, like (Son House’s) ‘Grinnin’ In Your Face,’ is mirror-music,” legendary music critic Greil Marcus writes of the track in the album’s liner notes.
“The singer talking to himself, trying to tell himself the truth, which he’s going to need if he’s going to step out of his door, walk into the world, and fool himself, for just a second, that he’s ready to take it on.
“As you listen, it’s no surprise at all that it took most of White’s music-making life to bring the song home.” Check out ‘City Lights’ for yourself below.
