A lot changed in the White Stripes' world between Get Behind Me Satan and Icky Thump: Meg White moved to L.A., while Jack White left Detroit for Nashville, married and had a daughter, and formed the Raconteurs, a side project that won so much praise that some fans worried that it meant the end of the Stripes.
Those fears were as unfounded as the speculation that White's new hometown meant that the band was going to "go country" (after all, Jack and Meg are wearing the costumes of London's Pearly Kings and Queens, not Nudie suits, on Icky Thump's cover).
Though it was recorded at Nashville's state-of-the-art Blackbird Studio and covers everything from bagpipes to metal, Icky Thump is unmistakably a White Stripes album.
The eclectic feel of Get Behind Me Satan remains, but is less obvious; interestingly, out of all the band's previous work, Icky Thump's brash and confessional songs most closely resemble De Stijl.
"300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues"' acoustic blues and carefully crafted wordplay hark back to "Sister, Do You Know My Name." Meanwhile, "Rag & Bone" is a cute, ragamuffin cousin of "Let's Build a Home" that casts Jack and Meg as enterprising garbage-pickers; the sly grin in Jack's voice as he says "we'll give it a...home" is palpable.
And, while Get Behind Me Satan was heavy on pianos, Icky Thump is just plain heavy, dominated by primal, stomping rock that feels like it's been caged for a very long time and is just now being released.
Jack White's guitars are back in a big way; "Catch Hell Blues" is a particularly fine showcase for his playing.
Once again, though, the Stripes defy expectations, and their "return to rock" isn't necessarily a return to the kind of rock they mastered on Elephant.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Icky ThumpJack White | The White Stripes | Play | 04:14 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 2 | You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You're Told)Jack White | The White Stripes | Play | 03:54 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 3 | 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour BluesJack White | The White Stripes | Play | 05:28 | 12 MB | 31 MB |
| 4 | ConquestCory Robbins | The White Stripes | Play | 02:48 | 6 MB | 19 MB |
| 5 | Bone BrokeJack White | The White Stripes | Play | 03:14 | 7 MB | 22 MB |
| 6 | Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly WornJack White | The White Stripes | Play | 03:05 | 7 MB | 23 MB |
| 7 | Little Cream SodaJack White | The White Stripes | Play | 03:45 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 8 | Rag and BoneJack White | The White Stripes | Play | 03:48 | 8 MB | 23 MB |
| 9 | I'm Slowly Turning into YouJack White | The White Stripes | Play | 04:34 | 10 MB | 30 MB |
| 10 | A Martyr for My Love for YouJack White | The White Stripes | Play | 04:19 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 11 | Catch Hell BluesJack White | The White Stripes | Play | 04:18 | 9 MB | 25 MB |
| 12 | Effect and CauseJack White | The White Stripes | Play | 03:00 | 6 MB | 18 MB |
| 13 | St Andrew (This Battle Is In The Air) | The White Stripes | Play | 01:49 | 4 MB | 13 MB |
| 48 mins | 111 MB | |||||
| 48 mins | 313 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Regulo Aldama | Trumpet |
| 2 | Joe Chiccarelli | Engineer, Mixing |
| 3 | Autumn de Wilde | Photography |
| 4 | Jim Drury | Bagpipes |
| 5 | Rob Jones | Design, Layout Design |
| 6 | Vlado Meller | Mastering |
| 7 | Ian Montone | Management |
| 8 | Lowell Reynolds | Assistant Engineer |
| 9 | Cory Robbins | Composer |
| 10 | Thrid Man | Design, Layout Design |
| 11 | The White Stripes | Primary Artist |
| 12 | Jack White | Audio Production, Composer, Group Member, Guitar, Member of Attributed Artist, Mixing, Producer, Vocals |
| 13 | Meg White | Drums, Group Member, Member of Attributed Artist, Vocals |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |