Icky Thump [CD]

All "Icky Thump" initially brought to mind was Graham Chapman telling Terry Jones how to say, "Eee, ecky thump!" into a mike.

But it's also the title of the White Stripes' sixth album, and after the mediocre dry spell of "Get Behind Me Satan," it's nice to hear that the Stripes seem to have regained their creative juices. This time they pack the album with dark seventies-style rock'n'roll and some traditional folk flourishes.

It kicks off with the dark, plodding guitar that blazes up to life every few seconds, and a sinuous synth ripple that slithers through the melody. "Icky thump/Who'da thunk?/Sittin drunk on a wagon to Mexico?" Jack yowls, describing the less pleasant corners of Mexico, and taking a moment to jab at Americans ("Why don't you kick yourself out/You're an immigrant too!").

It softens up a lot for the catchy, bluesier rocker "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told)," and the mellow gritty "300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues." Then the album goes through two phases: the first is one of British and Scottish folkiness, and a trumpety rocker that sounds like a B-side from Beirut. Then the last leg of the album slips back to blazing rock'n'roll, full of dark energy and retro organ.

I never quite figured out what was going on in the halfhearted "Get Behind Me Satan," except that every band has their dud. And fortunately "Icky Thump" is everything that album wasn't -- spirited, creative, enthusiastic, and full of those little moments and brilliant instrumentation that bring it alive. Nice to see they haven't run out of juice yet.

Yeah, we have Jack blazing away like a forest fire on his guitars, whether it's softer blues riffs, ringing blasts or hard-rocking swirls. And Meg smashes the drums like no other. But their music is festooned with a colourful array of extra instrumentation -- sweeps of eerie, vintage psychedelic synth, sprightly gypsyish trumpets, and even bagpipes for the mesmerizing "St. Andrew (This Battle Is In The Air)."

Jack seems to have regained his verve as well: he sounds assured and a little sad, and his quirky voice has a new depth and power. But he hasn't lost his melancholy edge, singing of Mexican robberies, stream of consciousness love songs, the rag and bone man, and a man who loves a woman so deeply, he lets her go so he won't make her unhappy.

And Meg gets to display her clear voice a few times -- she gets to talk with Jack in "Rag & Bone," and the eerie Scottishy ballad "St. Andrew (This Battle Is In The Air)" has her murmuring a prayerlike song over a bagpipe/drum melody. ("This battle is in the air/I'm looking upwards/where are the angels?/I'm not in my home!").

"Icky Thump" is both a wonderful return to form, and a foray into new territory for the White Stripes. A glorious experience, and it only gets better with repeated listens. A triumph.

This new album is quite spectacular. It has in some ways gone back to the root of The White Stripes were all about, a guitar, drums and vocals. In other ways this album has pushed further the boundaries of the little box Jack White confines himself to; they have ditched the Marimba, taken on some bagpipes, some horns and added a synthesiser that sounds like it belongs in an Irish jig. This leaves us with a very diverse sounding album. The title track and lead single Icky thump is just plain weird at first, but the jerkiness and blasts of synthesiser soon grow on you. Moving swiftly onwards we get a bit country with You Don't Know What Love Is, it's brilliantly catchy. 300 MPH...... doesn't sound like the name implies until the distortion pedal kicks in around the two and a half minute mark and erupts, but it settles down. Conquest uses the horns to great effect, the song is not swamped by the songs but they act rather as a motif to the fact that it is a cover of an old song, for ten seconds somewhere in the middle of this song is sounds like new rave but that's just my opinion. Bone broke next is a classic White Stripes song, guitar drums and vocals, simple yet effective. Now comes the strange part, Prickly Thorn and St. Andrew tie in with one another, the first of these is pretty much a folk song, the second a psychedelic meltdown of backwards bagpipes and drums with some eerie spoken works by Meg White. Little Cream Soda is back to the three elements of The White Stripes, but it is quite heavy. In my opinion it is the last five songs on the album that are the best, Rag & Bone is a comical spoken word piece, I'm Slowly Turning Into You is epic with the effect on the guitar here not disimilar to that on Blue Orchid. Matyr is both slow and emotional yet thumps along in the chorus driven by stabs of organ and trundling bass heavy guitar. Catch Hell Blues is The White Stripes in their barest form with this track recorded in one take. Effect and cause is an acoustic country song yet the highlight of this song has to be the lyrics.

A quick note must be made about the sound quality of the CD version, everything seems to have compression on it and so this makes the CD version sound a little muddy at times, buy the vinyl if this concerns any audiophiles out there but it isn't really too much of a problem, I think it adds a fuller sound when compared to their older albums.

This album oozes with contrasting styles and sounds and all held together with a tremendous drumming backbeat. Like others I cannot quite get into the opening title track but it's a treat from thereon in.