White Stripes - "Icky Thump" Review

Three words: Buy. This. Album. It's easily the best album of 2007 so far and definitely one that keeps your head nodding from start to end. While the last album, "Get Behind Me Satan," went in a different direction, disapppointing many fans (including myself), this one returned the group to its glory. Hard rock, throwback blues, acoustic guitars, organs, and even a rockabilly-esque song all are found on here.

The album leads off with the first single "Icky Thump," a hit you in the face and leave you for dead type song. Hard driving rhythm from Meg and edgy guitar playing from Jack, whose style is a throwback to Eric Clapton and a view of the future. In my opinion, no current rocker around today has his skills and ability to write songs. I won't get into every song here, but two of my favorites include "Rag And Bone," a great bluesy song with sort of a call-and-answer/spoken word exchange between Meg and Jack, and "Effect and Cause," which is a nice, slow acoustic song that you could find on the Jack White produced Loretta Lynn album.

It's a return to glory and hopefully a window to the future. Buy it and see them live; oh, and while I'm a fan of owning the album (as well as wanting to start a vinyl collection), you may want to consider buying it from iTunes. You get the aforementioned rockabilly song "Baby Brother" and a live version of "Tennesse Border" (Hank Williams song) as bonus tracks that you can't get from anywhere else.

Also, the Stripes will be playing a live show on the web at 11:00 p.m. EST TONIGHT. It can be found here.