Basically the normal White Stripes rule applies with this record if youre a fan youll probably love it, if you hate them this isnt going to convert you because for all its kooks and oddities, its no radical new direction. What this fifth album is though - is a very different version of the same thing, of which more in a sec.
Basic facts then: there are still two of them, this was recorded in the same studio in their hometown of Detroit as all their other work (in a rush in March), they dont use computers, and Jack White has again written all the songs as well as producing and recording the record. Theres no bass again (no, that stuff on Elephant is a guitar tuned down, not a bass). Meg has one vocal number, of 35 seconds duration. All this is good.
One of the great things about this lot is the constant invention. They basically do what seems a good idea and bugger the consequences. With Get Behind Me Satan theyve made another neat stride forwards, taking the rich production values of Elephant, rather than the raw garage-band sound of De Stijl , for example, but theyve managed to recapture some of the kookiness which kind of went missing on Elephant (although its there in droves live).
What theyve also stepped away from is the rocket-powered blues-rock of Elephant too. Of the 13 tracks on this record only two really feature the utterly prominent electric guitar sound that defined the last album.
Instead youre met with pianos, acoustic guitars, mandolins and marimbas, as well as the Gibson hollow-body and the Plastic Fantastic of yore.
All of this may well indicate something deeper too. Meg White is often unfairly lambasted as a musician (in fact asking just about any drummer to play behind a single guitar for an entire set would make them sound rough, too few layers), but its certainly true that by comparison to her fake brother shes not close. As a musician, showman, character, song-writer and producer Jack White has long been far bigger than the little musical box in which hes chosen to live with The White Stripes, and this album could well be the first sign of him feeling the need to stretch his wings.
The opening track, and first single, is Blue Orchid . Its probably the closest thing to the Elephant sound on the record, although its grating in its use of crunching chords to express the singers anger. A better example of what lays ahead comes with Track 2, The Nurse , which opens with Jack on marimba (on which he still manages a great solo).
He moves to piano for the upbeat My Doorbell which is certain to become a live favourite, and then, later, on to thrash mandolin for Little Ghost (ditto).
One of things that binds all of these tracks together is that theyre all dark its all bitterness, betrayal, loneliness and anger. Whites always been good at this, but it rises to new heights as he sings distorted through the furious Red Rain . In the past the moods always been lightened by a fluffy track like Were Going To Be Friends not this time.
There are some lower lights. Im Lonely (But I Aint That Lonely Yet) and Forever For Her (Is Over For Me) are both far too good as song titles to end up as they have as songs, and the charming 35 second Passive Manipulation (Entire lyrics: Women, listen to your mothers, dont just succumb to the wishes of your brothers, take a step back, look at one another, you need to know the difference between a father and a lover ) is fun but reminds us why Meg isnt a lead vocalist.
So, all in all, it boils down to this: if youre a White Stripes fan this is unlike any other White Stripes album so far. If youre not, its exactly the same as all the others.
Its Jack White at his freakish best, both as a performer and a writer, its full of new ideas and sounds, and it probably means this will be the last record they ever make as a two-piece, or we can expect a classic distorted guitar fest some time in 2007/8.
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