Album Review The White Stripes - Icky Thump

is pure, unadulterated White Stripes stuff. While ‘Get Behind Me Satan’ took us a while to get used to, ‘Icky Thump’ is as instantly loveable as they come. For as we’d had the blues-pop of ‘My Doorbell’ and ‘The Denial Twist’ to introduce us to the oddities of ‘Take Take Take’ and ‘Passive Manipulation’, ‘Icky Thump’ the title track is already ingrained in our every cell - and that’s the weirdest ‘Icky Thump’ the album gets.

‘You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)’ and ‘Effect And Cause’ are both pretty, infectious numbers as influenced by Jack’s move to Nashville as the blues masters he would so love to emulate. It’s country done right, if you will.

‘A Martyr For My Love For You’ and ‘300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues’ are both beautiful ballads, ‘Catch Hell Blues’ and ‘I’m Slowly Turning In To You’ equally fiery ‘Stripes-by-numbers stomps. It’s hard to pick the singles with this one.

Unlikely to be released on seven-inch (although with the audacity of ‘Icky Thump’ to introduce us to the album anything is indeed possible) are ‘St. Andrew (This Battle Is In The Air)’ and predecessor ‘Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn’, being that they’re more examples of the Whites’ abstract side, and along with ‘Rag And Bone’, show that Jack’s further foray in to acting may not be as risky an option.

In short, with just one listen of any of the tracks on ‘Icky Thump’, you’ll be under the impression you’ve heard them a million times before. Which is ultimately a great thing; they’re all instant classics. Releasing the title track first was actually, predictably, a master stroke from Jack White. Winning us over with the oddity means the rest of the record can speak for itself.