CD Review

This transparent attempt to fool writers and fans into believing that Jack and (ex-wife) Meg White (a band whose core product is disaffection) suffer from actual ADD is the type of troll on which I generally refuse to bite, so suffice to say that this may well be the Zeppelin III (or something – listen to “Red Rain”) of indie/CMJ-rock – all this offered to you with the usual ear-of-the-beholder caveats, of course (I can’t honestly recall a band hip-hyped this violently since Live).

You’ve heard White Stripes’ stuff before, whether you know it or not; without over-generalizing it’s safe to say that the band would have fit in well on the SST label around the time they “discovered” Sonic Youth: picture a Jet, Blind Melon and Alice Cooper goulash served with budgetless (nudge nudge) production; music too advanced (but not overwhelmingly so) for any despicable nu-groovy commercial hawking VW Bugs and iPod.

Driven by noisy piano, acoustic guitar and marimba rather than rawk guitars, Get Behind Me Satan may, at first listen, come off as unfiltered sewage, but aside from some 70s radio droolage (Motown-shtick “My Doorbell” and dance-rocker “Blue Orchid,” in which Jack flames either Renee Zellweger or ex-pal Jason Stollsteimer), it’s a case of the Whites making the (relatively, in their case) minimalist instrumentation work fairly nicely. Long-time fans disappointed by the rather generic Elephant album will feel loved again within the safe Ricky Skaggs bluegrass confines of “Little Ghost” and freakout folk of "As Ugly as I Seem," while “Take Take Take,” an oddball paean to Rita Hayworth, would have worked fine on any previous album. In the traditional Meg weird-out vocal appearance, "Passive Manipulation” will spook the straights.

Now, then. Although purists may dig the fact that the Whites appear to spit in the face of success here while the slower among us may feel disenfranchised, there’s a certain marketability to all this nonsense that may or may not be intentional (trust me, my cynic-fingers are ready to pounce on the keyboard). The overall result, however, is that – whether or not you “get into” the record – it was, comparatively, a gamble, and on many levels (some yet to be determined) it worked. But never fear: now that White has married his first model, it shouldn’t be long before all goes dead-south (“Jack likes you, Sally! He really, really likes you!”).

Hate-mail, new indie release announcements, and other comments are always welcome. Send to ericsaeger@mindspring.com