Icky Thump

Icky Thump is the sixth and final studio album by American rock duo the White Stripes. It was released in June 2007¹ in the United States by Warner Bros. and internationally by XL. 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 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. 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.

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. 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 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. 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. ===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. The phrase was popularized in an episode of the British comedy series The Goodies, though Jack had never seen the show. 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. 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. 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." Meg elected to use two different drum sets and do her own drum editing on tape. She had learned tape editing from engineer Liam Watson at Toe Rag Studios during the recording of Elephant (2003). The lyric "It's safe to say that someone out there's got a problem with almost anything you'll do" may have been a response to the Detroit garage rock community and "fickle" hipsters who would not support the band after they achieved mainstream success and platinum-certified records. The Washington Post considered it "an unexpected moment of brilliance" on the album. "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. 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. 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. "Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn" was inspired by a thistle, the national flower of Scotland. Meg did two drum tracks on "St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air)" while Jack slowed down and sped up the tape. "St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air)" is "like a prayer" (Jack concurred with the interviewer who described it that way) and "a battle of our souls." The song is about the death of Jack's father. "Bone Broke" was originally written in 1998 for a Detroit band called Rocket 455, however they ultimately never recorded the song, so it was resuscitated for Icky Thump. The song was recorded as a live take. Vice considers it the best song on the album. ===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. 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. "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. It's about "collecting people's junk, using people's problems, magnifying and amplifying them in a song." "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. "A Martyr for My Love for You" is a ballad depicting "the idea of the guy with no confidence, like me," Jack said. 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. The theme of the song is about how "nice guys are finishing last" whereas "cocky, horrible people" have no issue getting a date to go home with. "Catch Hell Blues" was recorded live in one take. It was engineered in the same manner as "Little Cream Soda". Jack described it as a song that was not particularly written for the White Stripes but would not have fit with The Raconteurs at all. "Effect and Cause", like the album's second track has influences of country music that came about in the songwriting process. The song is about an unknown woman Jack had been in love with a few years prior. ===Weekly charts=== ===Year-end charts=== ==Certifications== Dolon, John (July 2007), "The White Stripes: New Jack City" Blender Volume unknown: pp. 109–112

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