These tunes get under your skin with each consecutive play

GET BEHIND ME SATAN
THE WHITE STRIPES
V2/XL

By Robert Black

At first blush, The White Stripes' fifth album, Get Behind Me Satan, appears to leave fans of Elephant’s '70s rock muscle behind. Satan finds the band not out on the Highway to Hell, but down at the Crossroads. The thundering guitars of their last album have been supplanted by thundering pianos and the kind of instrumentation not typically heard on rock records in some time: bells, marimbas, and mandolin, to name a few. Listeners who can get past the lack of stadium riffs, however, will find the band arriving at a new place artistically and turning out a more complex album, both unpredictable and strangely intoxicating. These tunes get under your skin with each consecutive play, making Satan a sly departure that won’t so much rock you as slowly cast its voodoo spell.

While much of the American rock scene has been staking its claim to the likes of Iggy Pop, Robert Smith and The Knack for the last year or two, The White Stripes were finding their mojo out on southern backroads, invoking the spirits of old blues 78s and honky-tonk heroes. On “Red Rain,” a delta-blues rocker, Jack testifies like the Seventh Son, which it turns out he is, over smoldering slide guitar; “Blue Orchid” finds him howling like a man possessed about the pains of a messy relationship, but still manages to be booty shakin’. Jack and Meg work each blue mood like snake charmers with their signature stripped-down rhythms and built-for-speed hooks.

At times, Satan feels loose and unfocussed, perhaps a testament to the relatively short amount of time the band took to write and record the album. Some of the tracks practically crackle with spontaneity, while others just seem oddly out of place, such as the Motown-flavored “My Doorbell,” which is still such a gleeful, rollicking piano romp that you will not only find yourself singing it days later, but also might also catch yourself wondering if "ringing my door bell" isn’t code for something sexier. Even the slower moments, like the pointless “Instinct Blues,” are quickly redeemed by songs such as the soulful “The Denial Twist” and the catchy ballad “Forever For Her.” Get Behind Me Satan presents a different White Stripes, confidently making a musical leap forward while simultaneously preaching the gospel of rock n’ roll’s bluesy, boozy past. Can I get an amen?

You can order the record and other merch at The White Stripes' official site.

Robert Black is a Two Lazy Critics™ Lazy Correspondent & producer/director living in the U.S.A.

Page last updated: September 16, 2006

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