Categories : Music Reviews.
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Rating: 4/5 Released: June 7, 2005 Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov |
The new White Stripes album, Get Behind Me Satan, was one of the most anticipated releases in a summer full of compelling new music, and the Stripes have lived up to the hype for the second consecutive time. This time, however, they went about it in a completely different way.
The most noticeable difference between this album and 2003’s Elephant is that GBMS is almost completely piano driven, aside from lead single Blue Orchid. Also strange is that while the Stripes retain the quirkiness that made them indie superstars, GBMS is chock full of flat-out pop hooks. These songs are catchy. Of course, Jack White could never be happy playing it completely straight; among the twists and turns on the album is the grassroots hoedown Little Ghost, which is a fluffy, pleasant little break in the action.
The unfortunate thing is that, as a result of White’s genre-bending, this album commercially seems to fall into a crack: fans will be upset that the album is the most mainstream sounding work that the White Stripes have ever done, while at the same time, detractors will still find the music inaccessible. In the end though, Get Behind Me Satan does prove to be one of the best albums of the summer so far, and it still leans far enough away from the mainstream to soothe the fears of the hipster crowd.
For those of us worried that Jack White was swaying a little too far away from eccentric genius and a little too close to just plain eccentric, Get Behind Me Satan proves that he’s still got the chops, and The White Stripes are still one of the best rock bands in the world.
