| Jack White and Meg White release their new album, “Icky Thump,” on June 19. |
Never has an album title better encapsulated the sound.
“Icky Thump,” the sixth full-length album from The White Stripes, hits listeners like a bag of bricks.
According to the band’s official Web site, “Icky” might be a reference to Swing Era jazz singer Billy Eckstine, or it might be a reference to British slang. What is important is this is a return to The White Stripes’ formula: an organic, solidly made, bluesy rock album, which sounds like it could have been released in just about any era in the past 45 years.
The title track at the beginning makes sense in spurts, with the catchiest of guitar solos. Jack White seems too reminiscing, probably about some excursion through Mexico, when he lets loose this choice line: “Well, Americans: What, nothin’ better to do? Why don’t you kick yourself out? You’re an immigrant too. Who’s usin’ who? What should we do? Well you can’t be a pimp and a prostitute too.”
The standout track is “Conquest,” with guitar-leading mariachi trumpets for a Mexican-sounding adrenaline song. One can’t help but picture grainy video of some conquistador standing atop a hill somewhere, yelling like a madman with his sword drawn.
The White Stripes, a duo made up of singer, songwriter, guitarist Jack White and drummer Meg White, really are an anomaly. They choose not to deviate much from their style record to record, and they have not evolved. Leading up to the album’s release, Jack White said any of the songs featured on “Icky Thump” could have fit easily on their 1999 self-titled debut had they been written and recorded back then, and he is correct.
Their last album, “Get Behind Me Satan,” felt the least like a White Stripes record than any of their other offerings. It had more ballads, modest orchestral arrangements instead of straight guitars, but the semblance of their old sound that made it work. May 2006 saw the release of The Raconteurs’ “Broken Boy Soldiers,” a collaborative indie record between White and three others not named White. Maybe he got certain songs and ideas out of his system. Jack White produced “Icky Thump,” which was recorded in Nashville over three weeks, according to a band statement. It is a return to old form.
People should take, or leave, The White Stripes, and “Icky Thump,” for how they appear – still unsurprisingly good.
Graham Beckwith can be reached at [email protected].
