Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 4.5/5 Released: June 19, 2007 Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov |
If Get Behind Me Satan was any indication, Jack and Meg White had finally softened their adoration for heavy blues-based rock, relying instead on skeletal piano and marimba arrangements to carry their songs. Almost exactly two years later, The White Stripes are back with some of their most aggressive music to date, with nary a piano to be heard.
People have often pointed to the Led Zeppelin influence on the White Stripes, or more specifically, the Robert Plante influence on Jack White. What Icky Thump makes perfectly clear is that the most important thing that he inherited from Zep is their fearlessness. White not only embraces and attempts a wide range of music, but is remarkably successful in adopting whatever persona he attempts, whether it be the old-time Celtic folk singer of ‘Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn,’ or the ZZ Top-like boastfulness of ‘Rag and Bone.’
‘300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues’ takes the quiet-loud grunge aesthetic to a whole new level; The Zorro soundtrack-ready, mariachi influenced ‘Conquest’ (a Patti Page cover) leads right into the near heavy metal ‘Bone Broke.’ And just when you thought White was limited to lyrical non-sequiturs, ‘A Martyr for My Love for You’ is a perfectly built story arc about a 16-year-old love interest.
On a couple of the album’s more traditional blues songs, Jack White leans heavily on his guitar to rip through ‘Icky Thump’ (with a decidedly un-traditional keyboard solo) and ‘Catch Hell Blues.’
Icky Thump is just another chapter in the expanding modern day legacy of the White Stripes. You can’t help but start wondering when – or if – this band is ever going to stumble.
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