The White Stripes - Icky Thump (Review)

I like this record.

Before you fear that I've resorted to making bland generalizations in lieu of actually writing about the music on this disc, let me reassure you that I'll come back to that. It's just that the fact that I like this record is extremely important.

In 2005, I wrote a short article for The Aquinian called "Max Maxwell's Turd Awards 2005." It listed the various records released that year that had been, in my mind, turds. They weren't standard-issue turds, mind you: they were records by bands that could've done better. I listed—I believe—Dave Matthews Band's Stand Up and Big Star's In Space, the Foo Fighters' In Your Honor, some other record I can't remember, and the White Stripes' Get Behind Me Satan.

I felt that Satan was (if I may be forgiven another moment of punnery) devilishly undercooked. That is to say, there's a difference between minimalism and realeasing demos. It just felt incomplete and hollow; it is, to me, the only point in the band's career where you find yourself not amazed that only 2 people are making the music. So I was a little apprehensive for the release of this, the 6th proper record from Jack and Meg.

That apprehension was uncalled for across the board. I love this record, to reiterate my original thought. Basically, it confirms what I already knew: there are the White Stripes, and then there are bands that are not the White Stripes. In 2003, I wrote in a webforum on the Rolling Stone website that the White Stripes would one day be as synonymous with the 2000s as the Who are with the '60s. I stand by the statement (which, by the way, made it onto the main page; I was flattered).

"You Don't Know What Love Is (Just Do As You're Told)" is as close to being punk as anything that the band has done. It's a plosive and meaningful follow-up to the title track, a '70s-prog-influenced number that addresses politics—specifically, those regarding illegal immigrants in the United States—which is a topic that I don't believe that White has ever used as material in his songs. And there's plenty of Meg vocals here, as on the truly bizarre "St. Andrew," featuring bagpipes appropriate for the song, given the title.

Basically, this is a return to the shredding blues rock records that this band used to make, and I can't wait to see this band this summer. As egalitarian as it gets in the rock world, the Stripes are playing every province in Canada this summer. You bet that I'll be at the Moncton show after hearing this beauty.