The White Stripes: Icky Thump

I got this album from the library, their latest studio album. I have never been very interested in White Stripes, I thought it was more like an aesthetical/postmodern exercise; the red and white colors and a woman playing drums while a serious/mad looking guy plays guitar...I found no attraction on it. However, I cannot deny that they are one of the bands that currently represent Rock&Roll, and as they say it never dies, I decided to give this duo a chance. So far I have found they are actually very good musicians and their proposal is very interesting. In my opinion Rock&Roll is (or should be) roots music played with electric devices. In other words, the electric instruments in Rock are basically tools for making these already heavy sounds even heavier. White Stripes don't use a bass-guitar and they don't need it, because Meg White's bass drum already does the job. This is an example of how you can sound heavy and full without much, and that respects the essence of Rock&Roll as I understand it. Still, The Stripes are technically very good and they don't hesitate to use studio machinery to make weird but delighting sounds.

In this album one can find pure rocks such as the title track, Bone Broke or Little Cream Soda, Scottish folk based songs (Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn/St. andrews), which are utilized in the album as an interlude between more rock stuff, a Paso Doble based hit (Conquest), burning Blues and Country vibe songs such as "You Don't Know what love is". So we have lots of world music here, and this is also an example of how rock plays the role of "means" rather than "word", just the same way terrorism is a means for ideology. The way the Stripes do this in the album reminds me of Led Zeppelin. Also some voice gimmicks that jack White utilizes.

My favorite ones are Icky Thump, Conquest, Little Cream Soda, catch Hell Blues and Effect and Cause.The White Stripes are weird, but they definitely show that Rock&Roll is still alive and it represents an ever developing artifact for making music and ultimately for expressing feelings. Waiting for their next proposal.