Icky Thump

OK, so I'm finally ready to share my thoughts on the new White Stripes album. In brief, it's fucking amazing. There are not many bands or groups out there that can get me excited for the release of new material like the Stripes. I'm not even a rock fan, but I hang on every word that Jack has to say through his work. The thing that comes through each time out is that Jack is a capital-A Artist who understands the responsibility that a creative person has to his work. No one is writing lyrics that affect me the way Jack White's do.

But the songs themselves; these little gems of composition, arrangement, and production. There were several moments on this album when I thought I was in for a rude awakening, that Jack & Meg had gone off in some direction I didn't care to follow. But each time, they bring it right back to where I first fell in love with them. An example: You Don't Know What Love Is. It starts out with some guitar that makes me think it's gonna be like a country kind of thing, but then the organs come in and the guitar fucks off for Jack to start singing and the song is right where I want it to be.

Even when the record gets it's weirdest on the Irish drinking song-sounding Prickly Thorn But Sweetly Worn or on Conquest, two numbers that clearly tell us that the Stripes are going off in directions we would never have imagined, it works within the context of a singular whole. Jack seems to be aware of the dramatic continuity of his albums more than most other artists out there today. It reminds me of the rap records of the early- and mid-90s, but without the skits.

And will all of this praise for Jack, I have to mention Meg. People give her shit for her drumming style, but it's jut that: her own style. And it's an integral part of the Stripes sound, which is why I didn't get into the Raconteurs when that was happening. There's something about the magic that these two people create together that's greater than the sum of the parts.

So there is it. Icky Thump: brilliant. A great time. Perfectly harmonious flow from Elephant, through Get Behind Me Satan, and into this. Jack will easily make whatever 'greatest artists of the century' lists that get compiled in 2099.

EDIT: I do have to admit that I was disappointed at the absence of a song where Meg sings lead. After the ones on Elephant and Get Behind Me Satan, I was really looking forward to it!