The White Stripes needed no less than three weeks for their sixth full-length player Icky Thump, twice as much as the predecessor Get Behind Me Satan. This time Jack and Meg have taken the time, perhaps to let the slight disappointment of that previous CD - the experiments on the marimba not appeal to everyone - disappear. And she succeeded. Icky Thumb is another maniacal record, at first hearing
… as simple as it is chaotic. Jack's freaking outbursts on his guitar and Meg's straightforward drumming are this time supported by a bagpipe, a synthesizer from the year zero and a mariachi orchestra. The pounding and ripping blues rock outbursts are punctuated by the folky Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn - a tribute to their Scottish ancestors -, the slightly psychedelic St. Andrew and the ballad A Martyr For My Love For You. But it is above all very hard what The White Stripes do here, and they do it in a very pleasant way. (IV)more
