The White Stripes Icky Thump by: Tom Bradbury Mon:25-Jun-07 Label: Warner Year: 2007 WB rating 77 out of 100

Keith Richards once said, “Everyone talks about rock these days; the problem is they forget about the roll”. It couldn’t be more true – the idea of dancing at a rock show is pretty much dead these days (nodding your head or moshing is not dancing). Yet there have been a few bands in the last ten years that have made a concerted effort to remember the roll, one of which is The White Stripes. Their new album, Icky Thump, is most definitely one that you can move your feet to, but its also like a trip through the history of American rock, blues and folk music. 

Icky Thump’s dance-worthiness is best exemplified by ‘Bone Broke’. A raw garage frenzy of fractured guitar, beating like cars driving over train tracks propels the verse, before giving way to Meg White’s cymbal smashing in the chorus. While often criticised, it is Meg’s drumming that gives the song its groove, releasing just the right amount of tension. Another great rocker is ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)’, which reeks of early Zeppelin. It possesses the casual swagger of Page and Plant that is so hard to replicate.

Although its well covered territory, the similarities between the White Stripes and Led Zeppelin are uncanny, from White’s singing voice and melodic signatures to the album structure - folky curiosities interspersed with hard rockers. Yet there are a couple of important reasons why the White Stripes are able to transcend the Zeppelin imitator tag. For one, Jack White is not just an artist – he’s a performer. The drama with which he infuses his voice means he is able to carry a line like “You can’t be a pimp and a prostitute too” with far more meaning that what might on the page. You only need to watch the video clips for ‘Blue Orchid’ or ‘Icky Thump’ to see White’s theatrical ability, where he appears as if he were the feature act in a stage show rather than just a guitar player. Yet in actuality he is part artist, part performer and also part historian and archivist.

There are numerous instances of historian White on Icky Thump. The suite featuring ‘Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn’ and ‘St. Andrew (This Battle Is In The Air)’, has White recycling old as the sea Celtic melodies, complete with bagpipes. It’s the attention to detail that gives this suite an air of authenticity rather than a – “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to do a song with bagpipes” vibe. White obviously knows a thing or too about Scottish folk music. A sense of the past pervades this record, whether it be the aforementioned folk touches or the slide guitar excursion of ‘Catch Hell Blues’. Icky Thump is more a well footnoted historical piece than mere retro rock, somehow academic in its precision.

It’s the title track that embodies everything that makes the White Stripes such a great band. White’s guitar is blistering, and he’s come up with the sort of riff that most aspiring guitar heroes can only dream of, melodic but with just the right amount of phallic overshadow befitting of a good lick. His vocals are imbued with characteristically obligatory exaggeration, in complete symbiotic tone with the song’s guitar histrionics, and Meg’s drumming provides a necessarily ominous beat, like the ticking of a bomb – she brings the thump referred to in the title. Yet most importantly, it’s a song that actually makes you want to dance, and that after all, is pretty much what rock n roll is all about. 

There are a few treading water tracks which prevent this from being a truly great album, but it is one that displays a degree of familiarity with American rock history, and an understanding of the true nature of rock n roll that is echoed by few other modern bands. For this reason the White Stripes should continue to be paid the respect that most other rock bands demand but do not deserve.