White Stripes - "Get Behind Me Satan" Review
“Get Behind Me Satan”Folk Music For The Modern World
The White Stripes
5 stars
This originally ran in the Redding Record Searchlight in July 2005
The White Stripe’s fifth album, “Get Behind ME Satan” is the rare album that makes art out of imperfection and creates an endearing warmth and infectiousness from a lack of polish. The Detroit rock-duo of Jack White (guitar, vocals, marimba, piano, tambourine) and Meg White (drums, percussion, vocals) create music that evades both genres and commercial conventions, crafting an album in the process that is like a brief and modern folk music anthology. In a world where popular art is dominated by formulae, sequels, and risk-free expressions, The White Stripes take chances to make their boundary-breaking music. They break away from the style of their previous album, the grammy-winning “Elephant” into previously unexplored musical territory. The result is a refreshing and energizing album that will both reward and challenge fans and casual listeners alike.
I am a relative newcomer to The White Stripes, having discovered them through Jack White’s production work with Loretta Lynn on her recent grammy-winning album “Van Lear Rose.” I came to the album with a set of expectations that was blown asunder by the depth and wonder of the material on the album.
I found the searing guitar and quirky time signatures that I had heard in my limited exposure to the band on the album’s lead track “Blue Orchid.” However, this track is followed by several featuring the marimba and the piano. Although the album contains a few electric numbers similar in sound to earlier White Stripes’ material, the acoustic songs “Little Ghost,” “Take, Take, Take,” and “As Ugly As I Seem” make the biggest impact. There is an old, weird feel to these songs that is reminiscent of old American folk music.
Interestingly, the conviction with which these songs are delivered is the constant that holds “Get Behind Me Satan” together. This conviction is what makes the disparate elements and genres touched by the album common and cohesive and is the root of what defines the White Stripes. They are put into the genre of rock-n-roll because of the fact that they play loud electric music. However, “Get Behind Me Satan” is really a folk album. It covers an enormous amount of ground and emotion and is the expression of two folks.
Although all of the songs on the album are great, there are a few highlights. “The Nurse,” a song about the risks of trust that sounds as though it could be a theme song from an old radio game show or children’s show. It is almost a calypso tune but it is punctuated with sonic blasts of drums and distorted guitar. It very deftly leads into the next track “My Doorbell,” a piano based, bubble-gum pop song that sounds like it could have been sung by the pre-adolescent Michael Jackson. “Little Ghost” is a mountain song that echoes acoustic Led Zeppelin and tells a tale of being in love a ghost. “The Denial Twist” another rollicking piano tune that is eerily reminiscent of the first time I heard Jerry Lee Lewis, capturing the exuberance and swagger of Lewis’ piano assault perfectly. The album’s closing track “I’m Lonely (but I ain’t that lonely yet)” has all of the hallmarks of a Hank Williams, Sr. classic all the way down to the line about jumping into the river but leaving “before my lungs could get wet.”
It is not much of a stretch to say that “The White Stripes” are a brilliant band and that Jack White possesses formidable talents as a musician, a writer, and a producer. Although they made their reputation as a rock duo, the depth of expression on “Get Behind Me Satan” illustrates the band’s other dimensions. Somehow, the album makes sense of all of the streams of music that act as its tributaries. Hank Williams mingles with Jack White who embodies both Robert Plant and Jimmy Page mingling with Michael Jackson who is mingling with Jerry Lee Lewis. “Get Behind Me Satan” is both an eclectic party and a folk music lexicon set to the inimitable music of the White Stripes. Above all else, it is an excellent album that stands up under repeated listening.
Brian J. Kenny
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