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Icky Thump - New White Stripes album


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I couldn't disagree more even if there were vast sums of money involved as a motivating factor. I think the band's growth is strikingly evident, especially with regards to Jack's phrasing, which was exceptional on Get Behind Me Satan. The old-timey piano ballads and concept songs like "Take Take Take" are a far cry from the prototypical Dee-troyt rock of their first record. And I'm glad for that.

 

 

Yeah see the problem with that is good bands grow while *also* writing memorable songs. Becoming a better musican over time is great if you want to be a session guy. But without the songs, it's actually a decline.

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Uh, "Take Take Take" is a great example of a song that sticks with me long after I take the proverbial needle off the wax. White manages more than just the tricky time changes that have already been mentioned - he also manages to make a comment, and he does so in the most anachronistic way imaginable. Depending on what you feel like reading into it, "Take" is either a song about the way society at large tends to dehumanize anybody in the public eye, or it's a comment on how enough is rarely ever enough.

 

The other songs on Get Behind Me Satan are a gas too, from the small clutch of typical Stripes blooze-rockers to the piano songs like "My Doorbell," which is almost defiantly catchy in spite of its simple instrumentation, and the closer, which I swear - and I know a lot of people disagree - is the best thing White's ever written. That track could have been recorded in 1928 and no one would know the difference.

 

Anyway, Satan is my favourite Stripes record, and it's a shame you don't like it. Especially since their debut is really sort of boring and standard. To each their own, though.

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Yeah see the problem with that is good bands grow while *also* writing memorable songs. Becoming a better musican over time is great if you want to be a session guy. But without the songs, it's actually a decline.

 

How can you say "The Denial Twist", or "My Doorbell", "Blue Orchid", "As Ugly As I seem", "Lonely, but I Ain't That Lonely Yet", or pretty much any song on that album besides "The Nurse" isn't memorable? The whole damn thing is catchy, practically.

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What?! Blue Orchid is as good as any of their other singles.

oof, not for me... sorry... :yucky

 

to me it screamed "hey, the label wants a single, so let's throw that song on the album to appease them"

i hated Jack's voice on it (his voice actually annoys me fairly often when it gets all high and whiney)

 

not to mention the lyrics are just abysmal

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And The Nurse may not be overly memorable on the disc, but it's a highlight live.

Definitely. Although I'm thinking the marimba might be left behind on the next tour. :ohwell

 

As for Blue Orchid, I could take it or leave it...but I love Get Behind me Satan as a whole, and I completely disagree about Jack's songwriting going downhill. Lyrically, GBMS is my favorite.

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i don't think his songwriting has gone downhill at all, just The White Stripes albums for me ;)

 

give me the Raconteurs album (even though it could have been a lot better) over the last 2 Stripes records anyday. then again, i've been a Brendan Benson fanboy long before i heard of The White Stripes :P

 

really hope I like this new one though... from the descriptions really hard to say, but at least my expectations are pretty low

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give me the Raconteurs album (even though it could have been a lot better) over the last 2 Stripes records anyday. then again, i've been a Brendan Benson fanboy long before i heard of The White Stripes :P

from http://www.therockradio.com/2007/04/white-...ad-in-july.html:

 

White Stripes hitting road in July

The White Stripes will hit the road this July in the U.S., according to a source at Warner Bros. Records, with tentative plans to play the 16 states that the duo has not yet performed in. Exact dates and venues are yet to be announced, but the group will play cities in places like Montana and Alaska, with the source saying, "They're doing this one for the fans." Following that run, frontman Jack White will take the month of August off to be home for the arrival of his second child with wife Karen Elson, which is due in late July or early August. The Stripes will resume touring in the fall, returning to the bigger, more frequently visited markets.

 

The Stripes will be supporting their sixth album, Icky Thump, which is due out on June 19th through Warner Bros. Based on hearing six songs, the album is a return to the bluesy, heavily guitar-drenched sound of the band's earlier records, with the usual White Stripes twists.

 

We have also exclusively learned that Jack White went into the studio last week to begin recording the second album from his other band, the Raconteurs. The follow-up to last year's debut, Broken Boy Soldiers, will probably surface sometime next year on a yet-to-be-determined label.

:thumbup

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How can you say "The Denial Twist", or "My Doorbell", "Blue Orchid", "As Ugly As I seem", "Lonely, but I Ain't That Lonely Yet", or pretty much any song on that album besides "The Nurse" isn't memorable? The whole damn thing is catchy, practically.

 

 

None of those are really memorable songs, especially Blue Orchid.

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Icky's album art is much better than Satan's, which obviously means it's going to be a better album. I kind of dig all the WS albums the same, with De Stijl poking it's head above the rest because it seems the most unified. Typically, I find their albums to be more of a collection of songs, I can start and stop anywhere (mostly I stop on Elephant after "Hardest Button"). Satan is probably the worst or best case of this idea, I like all the songs, but Blue Orchid sounds like it's starting an entirely different record, and i kind of forget that some of the slower ballads exist in there because there are quite a few. But that's not a complaint, it's the way a band like the WS should make albums. Today, I think Jack and Meg have become superhumans. Jack seems like he's on a creative high now that he has the Raconteurs, and while Meg's drumming has always been a joke to some people, I think she's become increasingly skillful and intuitive to what Jack's songs require.

 

Also, I might be a sucker for the marimba, but I like "The Nurse".

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Get Behind Me Satan is my favorite album, as a whole.

Same here... I've never really understood the tepid response to GBMS. I suppose some of it is a byproduct of the inevitable Jack White backlash.

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