icky thump - 95/100
first, it's worth noting that icky thump features one of the most entertaining album covers in the history of time, especially for anyone who's a fan of jack white. fortunately, after looking up the album cover and laughing, i then listened to the album and laughed. the whole thing is absolutely hilarious. there are a few serious(ish) songs in there, and somehow they manage not to be completely drowned in comedy. the lyrics are strong, when either funny or otherwise. i do kind of wonder what the hell jack white is thinking when he writes and performs stuff like this. is he laughing on the inside? is it all business?
i listen to almost everything on random, but this album is a trillion times better when listened to in order. all of the quirks come out and say hi in ways that just don't show up when listening to the tracks individually. it's great as a whole, and it is a whole. despite how startlingly diverse the sound and style is, it does feel like an album as opposed to a collection of songs. it feels like it has a plan (well... perhaps multiple plans). it ain't no sum of parts, and that makes it kind of hard to quantify the goodness of songs that are far better when placed in order than on their own. oh well. this is the second album this year that's better than anything that came out last year, and i consider it better than the last three (possibly four [possibly five]) white stripes albums.
icky thump - 89
this album's blue orchid. it just seems like it's sort of there to be the first single. bonus points for the random lack of subtety when telling white americans to kick themselves out.
you don't know what love is (you just do as you're told) - 85
this is a solid song, but nothing about it really stands out. it's like a lot of past white stripes songs that are great, but are just sort of there. the lyrics are strong and confident, though. i'm sure that most people who listen to this song will have specific people in mind while they digest the message. either that or i'm just particularly hostile... maybe both?
300 m.p.h. torrential outpoor blues - 94
the bridge guitar part also sounds like heaven to my ears. it's a shame it's only around for four measures. the rest of the guitar is a mix of clean, relaxing, overlaid lines that let the listener sink into the song spliced together next to abrasive, loud, distorted solos. it works, though. the lyrics follow the smooth flow of most of the clean guitar. the loud solos jar me awake after i've sort of been lulled away from alertness. bonus for the mention of redheads.
conquest - 90
see, now, there's a problem with assigning a quantitative value to a song that's pretty much just absurd as possible. there's a shift: serious guitar partTRUMPETS. that's it. it makes no real sense, and that's why it's great. the song holds up on its own, but a magical loud trumpet latin interlude just makes the album all the more well-rounded and lighthearted. the song itself isn't really that great. it's its appearance and placement on the album that makes it a highlight.
bone broke - 87
the verse guitar is almost a complete copy of the white stripes' first album's 'stop breaking down.' that doesn't bother me at all, though, because i love that song and that album. it also doesn't feel (to me, at least) like jack white has just run out of music to write. still, this song doesn't stand out for any other reason than that it sounds like it's 10 years old.
prickly thorn, but sweetly worn - 94
bagpipes. the guitar line is absolutely addictive. actually, this whole song is addictive. this song adds a random irishish-type sound to earlier layers of random latinish-type sound. it also does so, again, out of nowhere. that should be aggravating, but it's amazing. somehow the change in sound seems to make the album more whole as opposed to less cohesive. you will tap your toe to this here tune.
st. andrew (the battle is in the sky) - 85
the obligatory short, sort of useless track on its own. when run right after its predecessor, though, it seems like an almost necessary white stripey chopped up quarter-toned conclusion to the bagpipe chunk of the album.
little cream soda - 85
another song that's just sort of there. still, jack white rhythmically and definitively talking at you demands your full attention. there's no arguing with it. it's sort of like he's telling you something important and their just happens to be music playing in the background.
rag & bone - 100
at first i thought; 'there's not much to this song. it will probably get old.' but then i listen to it and it doesn't. i think i've laughed almost every single time i've heard this song, especially in the presence of company. the dialogue is funnier than spinal tap, although i admit that a big part of that is because it's jack white talking. it's just that good... in an entirely different way than what makes a song meaningful or passionate. i just can't listen to it and not think that it's perhaps the best thing ever, and i've yet to really see the need to articulate it much beyond that point. it doesn't need it. it's just that good...
i'm slowly turning into you - 87
vocals following the exact same melody as the instrumentation is a big pet peeve of mine. the instrumentation is amazing (the distorted chorus strings are an album highlight), but the vocals sort of stick in my craw for some reason. the chorus feels kind of forced, to me. i can still get into this song, though, and the verse vocals are just dandy. the chorus vocals are just... kind of... off.
a martyr for my love for you - 96
this song is just great. i can't quite put my finger on why, just everything about it is amazing. the instrumentation, guitar and organ, work perfectly. the the lyrical storytelling and the vocal melody are perfect. the pace, climaxes... it's all just great stuff. there's no one thing about this song that makes it so good. it's all of it working together.
catch hell blues - 94
this song is damn good guitaring. i want to learn this song on guitar. i will buy a slide, tune to D, and try to be about 50 times cooler than i actually am when i learn this song. because that's what's going on here. it's jack white being 50 times cooler than all of us and wailing away on his strings, occasionally shouting something firey and brimstoney at us, and then wailing away some more. the flow in this one is one of the better hints of how great the white stripes are when live and uninhibited.
effect & cause - 93
best lyrics on the album (perhaps excepting the rag & bone dialogue). 'if you're headed to the grave you don't blame the hearse.' that's just a brilliant take home message, no? the song's about chastising somebody, and it's simultaneously strong, forceful, and comedic gold. this is another one where everybody should, in my view, have some specific person(s) in mind when they hear it. i don't know if it necessarily brings the album to a nice close, but it is a change of direction to a more acousticky sound from the songs leading up to it. it's sort of a less random parallel to de stijl's your southern can is mine.
recommended music:
lcd soundsystem - tribulations
david bowie - space oddity
