Icky Thump
2007 studio album by The White Stripes
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Icky Thump is the sixth and final studio album by American rock duo the White Stripes. It was released in June 2007 in the United States by Warner Bros. and internationally by XL.[2][3] Produced by vocalist and guitarist Jack White, it was recorded across three weeks at Blackbird from January to February 2007, the longest recording period of any White Stripes album. Icky Thump marks a return to the band's early garage rock and punk blues influences, featuring lyrics about "feeling positive about being alive".
| Icky Thump | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 15, 2007 | |||
| Recorded | January–February 2007 | |||
| Studio | Blackbird (Tennessee) | |||
| Genres | ||||
| Length | 47:44 | |||
| Labels | ||||
| Producer | Jack White III[1] | |||
| The White Stripes chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Icky Thump | ||||
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Icky Thump was praised by critics, marking a resurgence after the polarizing reviews of their previous record. The album was a commercial success, topping the UK Albums Chart and peaking at number two on the Billboard 200, receiving gold certifications in both territories.[4][5] It also entered the top ten of several other countries. Icky Thump won Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.
Recording and production
The thing I don't think engineers understand about me as a producer is that there are a lot of things I don't want to know anything about. I don't want to get underneath with a flashlight in my mouth and fix a Neve board. Not out of [lack of] interest—I'm extremely interested in that. But I make sure to keep myself away, because if I go down that route, you'll never see me again!
Icky Thump was recorded and mixed entirely in analog at Nashville's Blackbird Studio in Studio D by engineer Joe Chiccarelli throughout January and early February 2007.[7][8] Meg White temporarily relocated from Los Angeles, California to Nashville for a couple months to record the album.[9][10] She was described as "on fire" and more involved in the whole process than previous albums.[11] According to Chiccarelli, in an interview with HitQuarters, The White Stripes had previously rehearsed and demoed around half the album, while the rest was conceived in the studio.[12] Jack White did not have any finished songs for the album as of December 2006, starting with a blank chalkboard to put them on, but by January 2007, they started recording at Blackbird.[9] The location was chosen in part for the opportunity to record in a larger studio with multiple engineers and their extensive microphone collection; while Jack had a rewarding experience there, he found it "very hard to work in that environment" for various reasons including his own nature.[6] Working at Blackbird was "[Jack's] struggle" to get certain tones in that environment.[6] The White Stripes had previously eschewed modern studios for a variety of reasons, primarily studio culture and Jack's production approach.[13] Within two days, the band had surpassed the ascetic budgets of their prior albums.[6] The duo spent 12 hours a day recording.[11] Jack met audio engineer Vance Powell after frequently encountering each other in the hallway between their respective studios,[14] and would go on to work on eight albums together,[a] one of which won them both a Grammy Award.[15]
In addition to his signature 1964 JB Hutto Montgomery Airline and 1950s Kay Hollowbody guitar, Jack would use his own 1954 and 1969 Fender Telecasters that were in the studio mainly for solos or for use with an Electro-Harmonix POG (polyphonic octave generator) pedal.[16] As a producer, Jack did not get involved in technical aspects of engineering with Chiccarelli, so as to not become too obsessed with it to the detriment of his performing and songwriting.[6][12] Meg elected to use two different drum sets and do her own drum editing on tape.[7] AKG D12, Neumann U 47, Shure SM57, Coles 4038, and Sennheiser MD 441 microphones were used on the drum sets through a Fairchild 670 compressor.[6][17]
The album was recorded on two 16-tracks as a "compromise" rather than the band's usual 8-track,[6][18] and took three weeks—the longest of any White Stripes album in a studio.[7][3] Most songs were recorded on 15 tracks with one track relegated to a SMPTE timecode, except for "I'm Slowly Turning Into You" which required a second tape machine to record background vocals.[7] Chiccarelli said, "We spent a little more time than he is used to experimenting and trying different things on that album, whether it was different ways to record the drums or the vocals, or different arrangements, or cutting takes together."[12] Royer R-121, AEA R84, and Neumann U 67 microphones were used on guitar amps; RCA 77-DX, as well as Altec Lansing 663, Shure SM57, and Neumann U 47 were used on vocals.[7][17] Like, White Blood Cells, which was also recorded at a large studio, Jack recorded most of his vocals and guitar parts near Meg's drum set to maintain the synergy of their performances.[17]
The vinyl version was mastered by Steve Hoffman.[7] It contains alternate versions of both "Icky Thump" and "Rag and Bone". "Icky Thump" is a shorter, radio edit mix. It contains a short section where the main guitar riff is mixed to sound like it's being played through an AM radio. This mix also edits the penultimate chorus to be 14 seconds shorter before the guitar solo. "Rag and Bone" is also a different mix and contains different Jack vocals for each verse (possibly the original guide vocals and there are no vocals from Meg) and is missing the harmonies from the last chorus.
Three songs that had been "lingering around", namely "It's My Fault for Being Famous", "Honey, We Can't Afford to Look This Cheap", and "Cash Grab Compliations on the Matter", became a B-side to the album's last single "Conquest" and were recorded and learned in Beck's living room (as at the time, Meg and Beck were neighbors and Beck had not yet finished his own studio).[19] Beck produced all three tracks and is featured on the first two by way of vocals and slide guitar respectively.[20] Working with Beck would end up being the last time The White Stripes ever recorded together,[21] however during that period The White Stripes had no intention whatsoever of disbanding.[19]
Music and lyrics
I suppose it reflects my own life, which is at a kind of turning point. I've moved to Nashville, [...] I've just made a new album. I'm making a lot of fresh starts in my life. And I think a lot of the characters in the songs are at these turning points, whether it's a midlife crisis, or they're at death's door, or they're just out of high school. I like the idea of people when they're forced to make a decision.
Following the experimentation of Get Behind Me Satan,[23] Icky Thump returns to the punk, garage rock and blues influences for which the band is known.[24] Additionally, the album introduces Scottish folk music, avant-garde, trumpet, and bagpipes into the formula. Jack said that the album would appeal to fans of the band's self-titled debut and told Blender in July 2007 that Icky Thump "is about feeling positive about being alive, taking deep breaths and just being really happy."[25] It reintroduces older characteristics such as the first studio recording of the early White Stripes song "Little Cream Soda". Entertainment Weekly's online site had an interview with Michel Gondry in which he said he would be directing a video for "I'm Slowly Turning Into You".[26] He mentions the idea for the video. Gondry also says that the video idea came first, and after mentioning the idea to Jack, he wrote the song to fit that idea during the recording of Get Behind Me Satan.[27] This video never came to fruition.
Regarding the title, a statement on the band's official website referencing the 1966 Batman film humorously claims that "Though some residents of northern England might almost recognize the title, the Stripes stress they are spelling it (Icky Thump) wrong intentionally just for "kicks" and "metaphors," and to avoid a possible lawsuit from the estate of Billy Eckstine."[28] On Later with Jools Holland (broadcast June 1, 2007), Jack clarified that the title is derived from "ecky thump", a Lancashire colloquial response of surprise. He heard its use as an exclamation by his then-wife, Karen Elson, who is from Oldham, historically in Lancashire.
The album artwork features Jack and Meg dressed as Pearlies, which is a traditional Cockney outfit somewhat contrary to the Northern dialect of the title. In the liner notes of Icky Thump, "Electra" is thanked on the second line, just after God. According to Ben Blackwell, Jack's nephew, this is not directed towards the radio DJ, Electra, but to a pet Jack and drummer Meg White used to have. The liner notes also thank Gene Krupa, Mitch Mitchell, Buddy Rich, John Bonham, Louie Bellson, and Karen Elson (as well as their daughter, Scarlett) among many others. The album is dedicated to Jack's father.
Songs 1–7
"Icky Thump", the only eponymous title track in the White Stripes' discography, was the album's first single. The lyrics address the hypocrisy of white Americans' attitude toward Mexican immigration to the United States, yet evidently having no issue with using Mexican labor for any reason. The United States was invading foreign countries for war in the Middle East–yet expressing building a wall to keep immigrants out.[13] The phrase was popularized in an episode of the British comedy series The Goodies, though Jack had never seen the show.[9] The song resurfaced in popularity when the "build the wall" rhetoric was part of Donald Trump's first presidential campaign. The White Stripes created "Icky Trump" t-shirts in protest.[29] The song won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance.
"You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You're Told)" was not conceived to be a country song, however some aspect of the genre materialized on its own.[13] It was chosen as the album's third single and its music video was filmed in remote Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada.
"300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues" was Jack's venture to combine as many elements of blues into one song without being gimmicky, "to break it up by having these bursts of extreme, explosive blues piercing through this country blues at times."[22] Meg elected to use two different drum sets and do her own drum editing on tape.[7] She had learned tape editing from engineer Liam Watson at Toe Rag Studios during the recording of Elephant (2003).[30] The Washington Post considered it "an unexpected moment of brilliance" on the album.[31]
"Conquest" was released as the fourth and final single–and became their final single as a band. Despite the sound of a trumpet section, Nashville-based mariachi trumpeter Regulo Aldama played his part multiple times, and Jack overdubbed the recordings.[32] The vinyl included three bonus tracks featuring Beck.
"Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn" and "St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air)", the latter performed by Meg on vocals, were written on a Gibson F-4 mandolin.[9][13] Bagpipes, performed by Jim Drury, were added to the song to emphasize the Scottish essence rather than American folk or Irish folk music as well as in honor of Jack's and Meg's respective Scottish ancestry.[9][33]
"Bone Broke" was originally written in 1998.[11] Vice considers it the best song on the album.[34]
Songs 8–13
"Little Cream Soda" originated as an impromptu, untitled jam from a 2003 concert that took place at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom. The original appears on the deluxe edition of Elephant. As a complete song, it was added to Icky Thump out of the superstitition of every White Stripes album having a song with "little" in its title, though the pattern was an otherwise random coincidence up until that point.[13] Jack's guitar amps were in an isolation booth adjacent to Meg's drum set and the sound intentionally bled into the drum's microphones so that no headphones were used.[7]
"Rag and Bone", the album's second single, was inspired by a story Jack's then-wife Karen Elson told him about her comical, childhood fantasy of absconding with rag and bone men. Jack created a riff and started using the phrase for it.[9]
"I'm Slowly Turning Into You" was originally formulated during the production of the previous album, Get Behind Me Satan, using a Hammond organ located in Jack's living room.[13]
"A Martyr for My Love for You" is a ballad depicting "the guy with no confidence, like me," Jack said.[35] The lyrics depict a 16-year-old girl with whom the narrator is in love. However the song was not written from the perspective of "a creepy older guy," despite what the lyrics may insinuate. Jack explained that the narrator could have been a lovestruck teenager, but he never determined the narrator's age.[22]
"Catch Hell Blues" was recorded live in one take.[9] It was engineered in the same manner as "Little Cream Soda".[7]
"Effect and Cause", like the album's second track has influences of country music that came about in the songwriting process.[13] The song is about an unknown woman Jack had been in love with a few years prior.[35]
Promotion and release
The White Stripes announced the completion of Icky Thump on February 28, 2007. On May 30, 2007, Chicago radio station Q101 aired the entire album without the band's permission. Jack called into the station (not on air) and reacted angrily about them playing it before its release, however the DJ said she was just trying to share the "unbelievably brilliant and awesome" album with fellow fans and had no malicious intent.[36][37]
To promote Icky Thump before its release, the band distributed custom-designed boxes and previewed tracks from the record through Ice Cream Man. The ice cream promotion focused on the Coachella,[38] Sasquatch, and Bonnaroo festivals and culminated in the band's release show on June 20, 2007, at the site of the former West Hollywood Tower Records on Sunset Blvd., temporarily rechristened Icky Thump. Records.[39][40]
In addition to being released on CD and 180 gram vinyl, the band released the album on a limited edition 512 MB USB drive[41][42] which was designed by British artist Stanley Chow[43] There are two versions; one of which depicts Jack, the other depicting Meg. The manufacturing was limited to 3,333 of each,[42] and were shipped the week of the U.S. release. Each drive contained the album in Apple lossless format.
A special mono mix of Icky Thump was available on 180 gram vinyl for a short time to Third Man Vault Premium Account subscribers.
The Conquest single included trading cards depicting Jack as matador "El Sloth" (named Juan Luis Martinez Blanco III of Serpa); Meg as "El Bianca Rosa"; and Beck as "El Perdedor" with the full name of Spanish artist Salvador Dalí added to his.[44][45]
Critical reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 80/100[46] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [47] |
| The A.V. Club | A−[48] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A[49] |
| The Guardian | [50] |
| NME | 9/10[51] |
| Pitchfork | 8.0/10[52] |
| Rolling Stone |  [53] |
| Spin | [54] |
| Uncut | [55] |
Icky Thump received critical acclaim, with an overall average rating of 80 out of 100 at Metacritic.[46] Barry Nicolson with British magazine NME wrote, "Icky Thump is brilliant, there's no way around that."[51] Commenting on the album's "fuller sound and relaxed flights of fancy," Heather Phares of AllMusic said "Icky Thump is a mature, but far from stodgy" album, and that "it's just great fun to hear the band play."[47] Jody Rosen, writing for Blender, called the album "the sound of a band not stretching out so much as digging in: burrowing deeper into loamy soil they know well."[56] Ultimately giving the album 3.5 out of 5 stars and giving an (A−) on his website,[57] Robert Christgau, with Rolling Stone, summed up the return album this way "Although the new constructions don't entice as consistently as they should, their noise stays with you. And what that noise stands for is itself." He added, "Like his sometime heroes Led Zeppelin, Jack White builds monuments. They're suitable for awestruck visits. But they're no place to settle down."[53]
In one of the more negative reviews, Josh Tyrangiel of Time remarked, "The White Stripes are too weird and talented to be boring, but it sounds like they might be a little bored."[58]
On December 6, 2007, Icky Thump was nominated for four 2007 Grammy Awards: Best Alternative Album, Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the single "Icky Thump", winning Best Alternative Album and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal. Q named Icky Thump as the 2nd best album of 2007. Furthermore, the album placed No. 17 on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.[59]
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Jack White, except where noted; all music is composed by Jack White and Meg White, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Icky Thump" | 4:17 | |
| 2. | "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You're Told)" | 3:54 | |
| 3. | "300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues" | 5:28 | |
| 4. | "Conquest" | Corky Robbins | 2:48 |
| 5. | "Bone Broke" | 3:14 | |
| 6. | "Prickly Thorn, but Sweetly Worn" | 3:05 | |
| 7. | "St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air)" | 1:49 | |
| 8. | "Little Cream Soda" | 3:45 | |
| 9. | "Rag and Bone" | 3:48 | |
| 10. | "I'm Slowly Turning into You" | 4:34 | |
| 11. | "A Martyr for My Love for You" | 4:19 | |
| 12. | "Catch Hell Blues" | 4:18 | |
| 13. | "Effect and Cause" | 3:00 | |
| Total length: | 47:44 | ||
Notes
- The Japanese edition features a bonus track, "Baby Brother".
- The iTunes release features the bonus tracks "Baby Brother" and a live rendition of "Tennessee Border" (Jimmy Work).
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[60][61]
The White Stripes
- Jack White – guitar, vocals, mandolin, keyboards, synthesizers, production, mixing
- Meg White – drums, vocals, synthesizers
Additional personnel
- Regulo Aldama – trumpet (track 4)
- Jim Drury – Scottish smallpipes (tracks 6 and 7)
- Steve Hoffman – vinyl mastering
- Vlado Meller – digital mastering
- Joe Chiccarelli – engineering, mixing
- Lowell Reynolds – assistant engineering
Artwork
- "The Third Man" – layout and design
- Rob Jones – layout and design
- Autumn de Wilde – photography
Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[90] | Gold | 35,000^ |
| Canada (Music Canada)[91] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[92] | Gold | 7,500^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[93] | Gold | 100,000^ |
| United States (RIAA)[94] | Gold | 801,000[95] |
|
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
