- Artist
- The White Stripes
- Label
- XL
- Release date
- 18th June 2007
- Genre
- Rock
Northern title, cockney outfits, Scots references – it's a weird and wonderful return from the blues-rock duo
It seems The White Stripes, or rather Jack White, have cheered up. After the joyless and paranoid marimba excursions of unlovable previous album Get Behind Me Satan, everything about Icky Thump feels fun again: from that bastardised Northern English title (influenced by White’s Lancastrian supermodel wife Karen Elson, perhaps?) to the pearly king and queen cover outfits, to the flirtation with mariachi music found within. The result is a solid, yet experimental blues-rock return to riff-tastic form.
Its first five tracks are a maelstrom of irresistibly crunchy noise and malevolent Meg White drumming. Icky Thump and Bone Broke’s sexily crunching guitar workouts once again lovingly channel the spirit of Led Zeppelin; You Don’t Know What Love Is is a country-glam hoe-down; 300mph Torrential Outpour Blues sees White doing Dylan fronting the Pixies. Conquest is breathtaking - Patti Page’s original becomes a mariachi duel where metal guitars battle trumpets. A nonsense middle where the duo attempt two tracks of celtic folk, bagpipes and all, can only be described as "jock horror". All is soon forgiven thanks to the playful Rag And Bone and Effect And Cause: both ramshackle, irreverent and yet utterly familiar. By ‘eck it’s good to see Jack smiling again.
More to try: The White Stripes: Elephant / White Blood Cells Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin III Fleetwood Mac: Greatest Hits
