MUSIC REVIEW

The White Stripes
Icky Thump

Icky Thump - Warner Brothers Records When the White Stripes put out a new

album, rock critics dust off their Webster's

Dictionary of Superlatives and look for new ways to express their hero worship. As a newly minted rock critic, I'll say this, "At the great rock and roll buffet, blues-rock duo the White Stripes went back for extra helpings of some early Led Zeppelin, and that is not a bad place to go" After Jack White produced and performed with Loretta Lynn on her fantastic comeback album Van Lear Rose, the White Stripes went in a different direction with the album Get Behind Me Satan. With

Icky Thump the White Stripes return to their trademark blues-based rock. There's also a novelty song, "Conquest," which has a Tex-Mex feel, about a ladies man who meets his match. "Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn" is a mandolin-driven acoustic number with what sounds like Irish bodhran drumming and bagpipes. It fades into "St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air)," a psychedelic tune with Meg doing a spoken word thing. Eagerly

awaited for more than a year, Icky Thump

is an instant classic, and it will make many top ten lists for best album of the year. With high expectations, the White Stripes album delivers in spades.