GENRE(S): Rock - Blues - LO-FI - Garage
PREAMBLE - The Stripes slide back into basics.
LOOK - Decked out in Mariachi-sequenced suits, Jack and Meg White are photographed into their stubborn M.O.: a black, white and red color pallet. A bit out of focus, inside a ragged frame, and topped with a red sticker, this image isn't anything to write your Art School Teacher home about.
LISTEN - "Icky Thump" (the song) serves as opener and delivers the catchiest guitar riff, umm, I don't know, in the past ten years; get that air guitar ready, my friends. Truth be told, at first glance, or should I say listen, "Icky Thump" comes off as a typical White Stripes staple but on your hundredth listen you realize just how far Jack White has come as a songwriter. Straight from this opening scorcher to the ultra radio friendly "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do What You're told)", The Stripes have come to know the power of a good song.
Like any White Stripes album, Icky Thump suffers from the repetitive simple song-writing style Jack White has mastered. But despite its expected formulas, I.T. has a higher Shining Moments Per-Capita than most with tracks like "Rag and Bone" (anthem for the proud Second-Hand junkie), "Effect and Cause" (containing the cleverest lyrics Jack White has ever written), and "Baby Brother" (a silly story of an adopted Martian child).
"Conquest" (originally by Corky Robbins) blasts through with Mariachi trumpets and brings the south-of-the-border sound you were promised; do Bull Fighting events put out their own sound tracks? A whole new genre was just created here; Cha-Cha Punk, or something along those lines. Interspersed with trips from Latin America to the Scottish Isles ("Prickly Thorn, But Sweet Worn"), I.T. appropriately veers off its destination (Lo-Fi Blues Rock) but always finds its way home.
SPEAK - Looking like they are about to take on "el toro", Jack and Meg have mislead us. Sure, we're used to the Whites twisting and turning their signature sound into different genres but on this album we're given only one "spicy" track.
ALBUM GRADE - B-
ARTWORK GRADE - D
DO WE HAVE A MATCH? NO
You are such an interesting writer. I think you should go into rock n roll journalism! Rolling Stone... Here comes Aaron!
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