Here's my review of the new White Stripes CD that came out today. A slightly shorter version will appear in the CL that hits newsstands June 28.

Icky Thump

THE WHITE STRIPES

Warner Bros.

“Who’s using who?” That’s the big question Jack White poses on his latest outing with Meg. The actual line appears on the album’s title track and refers to Uncle Sam exploiting its neighbors to the south, as in: “White Americans, what?/ Nothing better to do?/ Why don't you kick yourself out?/ You're an immigrant too." The next verse rhymes “Who’s using who” with the zinger “You can’t be a pimp and a prostitute, too.”

Jack sounds comfortable and convincing in the role of protest singer. But that’s a narrow path to walk, and he quickly veers off, broadening the theme of “who’s using who” to man vs. woman with “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do What You’re Told).” The song, which boasts a memorable classic-rock chord progression, finds Jack playing the role of motivational speaker, cajoling a woman in a loveless relationship to move on. “You just keep on repeating all those empty ‘I love yous,’” he sings. “Until you see that you deserve better I’m gonna lay right into you.”

Jack’s a better stylist than songwriter, and he turns to outside material to best express the “who’s using who” issue. “Conquest,” a Corky Robbins tune recorded by Patti Page, has a lyric that boils love down to a blood sport. The man woos the woman for the most selfish of reasons (“love to him was a joke”) only to have her flip the script ("the hunted became the huntress”). The Stripes sell the song with an outlandish, outstanding combo of war-cry drums, reckless guitar and mariachi horns. As on past albums, Jack and Meg mostly stick to the formula of guitar-drums and analog tape with the occasional keyboard popping up, like the funhouse organ that gooses "Icky Thump."

Of course, one must pay for his or her actions. That’s the parting shot Jack delivers with the closing tracks “Catch Hell Blues” (a viscous slide guitar workout) and the back-porch country ditty “Effect & Cause,” which imbues the subject matter with a touch of humor. On it, Jack sings: “I’m not saying I’m innocent, in fact the reverse/ But if you’re heading to the grave, you don’t blame the hearse.”

Gossipers might like to muse whether the “hunter vs. prey” bit refers to Jack’s weird relationship with Meg, the ex-wife that he calls his sister, the woman who plays drums for him and waits patiently in between his side projects, the gal who stood by dutifully when he exchanged vows with model Karen Elson. But we won’t go there.

4 1/2 stars (out of a possible five)

This article appears in Jun 13-19, 2007.