The White Stripes - Icky Thump Review

Very few, if any, bands have enjoyed the type of critical acclaim and commercial success in tandem that The White Stripes has over the last few years.  Critically, they are almost universally praised, mostly thanks to Jack White's mad scientist like guitar-work and songwriting.  Commercially, they've had several hits in recent years, including, but not limited to Seven Nation Army, My Doorbell, and their 2002 breakthrough Fell In Love With a Girl.  

Earlier this year, the Stripes released their sixth album, titled Icky Thump.  As usual, the record received it's usual critical acclaim, and it didn't bomb commercially either, debuting at #2 on the US Charts with over 220,000 copies sold in it's first week.  But sometimes, you see, critics and music fans can be wrong, and sadly, Icky Thump is one of those times.  

It's not that I dislike the record.  It's more than I expect more out of Jack White and his ex wife Meg (drums).  Their last album, 2005's Get Behind Me Satan, was an exciting record, full of songs that went as far away as one could from their standard blues rock sound.  Experimenting with marimba, piano and harpsichord brought a new energy to the band, and it was palpable on Satan.   

Sadly, Icky Thump is mostly a guitar and drums record.  And I find myself utterly bored with it 3 months after it came out.  It's not that Jack and Meg are incapable of creating a good straight ahead rock record; they've proven themselves to be quite capable of that.  These songs lack energy, and the 'you don't know what's coming next' feeling that made listening to this band so fun in the first place is gone.   

The album starts off on a high note.  The title track kicks things off with pure sonic power, over which Jack comes as close to rapping as you'll probably ever hear.  The song sounds big, it sounds explosive, it sounds like what you'd expect out of a White Stripes record.  They follow that up with the sweet guitar pop of You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told), a song that very easily could have been a Raconteurs song from the sound of it.  The song has the strongest hook on the record, not to mention the most memorable melody.  Add in some guitar histrionics from Jack, and you have a second instant Stripes classic.  

Even the third track, 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues, which jumps all over the place but manages to remain wholly enjoyable, fits into this band's identity.  But after that, things go off the tracks.  

The addition of bagpipes to a couple of tracks can't save those tracks from one simple fact: they aren't very good.  Much of the rest of the album is white noise from Jack's guitar, almost as if they're trying to cover up the fact that they just don't have the songs this time around.  Only the pop jangle of I'm Slowly Turning Into You and the acoustic rave up Effect and Cause hold any sort of replay value with me.  The rest I could honestly never listen to again and not miss it.  

I wanted to like this record.  I've loved most of the Stripes' prior material and I thought, based on the title track, that I'd love this too.  Apparently, it just wasn't meant to be.  

2.5 stars, rounded DOWN