The White Stripes - Icky Thump

Two years after the release of the superb Get Behind Me Satan, The White Stripes return with the oddly titled Icky Thump, their sixth full-length album. And this time, no marimba. But worry not, all you fans of quirky instrumentation, there are bagpipes to be heard this time around (featured on "Prickly Thorn, Sweet but Worn" and "St. Andrew (This Battle is in the Air)"). Icky Thump kicks off with the wicked title track, a heavy-beated rocker with exploding guitars, in which Jack spews "White Americans, what? / Nothing better to do? / Why don't you kick yourself out / You're an immigrant, too / Who's using who? / What should we do? / Well, you can't be a pimp and a prostitute, too." Meanwhile, single "Rag and Bone" is set to become the new anthem for all you extreme garage salers out there (of which, I'm sure, there are many). The song features a hilarious lyrical track in which Jack and Meg test the old cliché "one man's junk is another man's treasure" over a bouncy chorus fit for play on an iPod commercial. The wonderful "Conquest," a Patti Page cover, sounds like a missing number from a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack with its mariachi wail and bombastic backdrop of drums. "I'm Slowly Turning into You" and "Little Cream Soda" are other highlights of the album, both wonderful examples of the barely-contained heavy rock energy erupting from the Whites' instruments. Jack's vocals are in top form throughout the album, attacking each note with bluesy-punk determination. Likewise, Meg still knows how to keep a beat; she keeps it, if you will, thumpin'. The music itself is raucous and frenetic, a modern blues burst of energy, the way rock and roll is meant to be played. And rock and roll this is, really and truly. The Stripes, here and with all of their releases, breathe life into a genre of music once thought, and still thought, to be dead. Their lack of pretentiousness is refreshing, their sense of humor intoxicating. Yes, indeed, there is not a lot of real icky to be found here. [www.whitestripes.com]