The White Stripes - Icky Thump (XL)
4/5
By: Joshua K
To avoid boring you, loyal rockfeedback reader, with the stuff you dodged by not doing your physics A-level, take my word about the following: gravity is a law, and eventually it catches up with you.
Put another, perhaps more familiar way: a band's second album may not necessarily be the difficult one... but eventually they outrun their momentum, lethargy sets in, and that which was a mega rush starts to feel like a job. At which point, your favorite rock star needs to look in the mirror and decide: Should I stay or should I go? Do I have the energy to crash those barricades, or will charting at #57 with a bullet suffice? A hard task to motivate for when one has already deeply drilled their inner creative well and tasted the good life (just ask Robbie Williams. Or Oasis...).
At this point, you're surely wondering: what, dear scribe, does your masturbatory warbling have to do with the new White Stripes LP? I'm glad you ask. For I posit: in the last few years, something has been very wrong in the state of Stripedom.
Despite initial drooling enthusiasm from the fanboys, Jack-n-Meg's last LP (in 2005) was, unlike prior efforts, merely a decent record outside its singles - so pedestrian it should've been named 'Get Behind Me Stan.' Meanwhile, the live shows, hidden behind silly mariachi clothing, were surprisingly turgid and lifeless rather than the blistering, energetic affairs of old.
And, to these ears, side project The Raconteurs, recorded around the same time, was equally flat on record. (But, at least those live gigs, in smaller venues, were rollicking affairs, giving Jack a chance to have fun again by sharing the spotlight.)
In the interim, Mr. White married a model, left Detroit for Nashville and began siring a brood, while Ms. White decamped to LA. For anyone versed in rock history, these were not the most encouraging signs for their next act - especially given possibly misheard word that 'Elephant', the album before last, had been intended as the final Stripes effort.
So, when your humble critic first experienced the puzzling break toward the end of the new album's lead track, first single and 'Seven Nation Army' pastiche - also called 'Icky Thump' - his first reaction was, 'Uh-oh... are those fackin' bagpipes?!?'
Thankfully, the rest of 'Icky Thump' the album delivers with a renewed intensity. And, though not as primal as 'White Blood Cells' or as smooth as 'Elephant', which are quite possibly The Stripes finest two collective moments, it succeeds in grabbing enough strong elements of each to make it highly worth your while.
In fact, the last two-thirds of the album offer one highlight after another. There's the crunch of 'Bone Broke' and 'Little Cream Soda', the latter melding the spoken-word delivery of 'The Union Forever' against Sabbath-worthy guitar work, and the pulsing drive of 'Rag & Bone', which casually recycles the 'Hardest Button to Button' riff to show recent copyists like Wolfmother who's boss. 'Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn,' flowing into 'St. Andrew (This Battle Is In The Air)', meanwhile, would fit right into the finest of Zepplin's balladry.
Impressively, the disc saves the best for last, a final suite up there with The Stripes' best songs. Two radio-friendly stompers, in the form of 'I'm Slowly Turning Into You' and 'A Martyr For My Love For You', almost prepare you for the tight blowout of 'Catch Hell Blues' and the equally bluesy, but country-esque 'Effect & Cause'.
And then they're done - leaving you hoping you have the chance to see them live this summer and eagerly wondering, once more, what they'll do next.
A substantial return to form, then. And a testament to the beautiful power of music: that, if done well, it can defy gravity...
Watch the video to 'Icky Thump' on Rockfeedback HERE.
Artists in this article: The White Stripes
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