Icky Thump
From Stripespedia
Icky Thump is the sixth album released by Detroit rock duo The White Stripes. It was released on June 18 (UK and Europe only) and June 19, 2007.
Contents |
Track listing
- 1. "Icky Thump"
- 2. "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You're Told)"
- 3. "300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues"
- 4. "Conquest"
- 5. "Bone Broke"
- 6. "Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn"
- 7. "St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air)"
- 8. "Little Cream Soda"
- 9. "Rag and Bone"
- 10. "I'm Slowly Turning into You"
- 11. "A Martyr for My Love for You"
- 12. "Catch Hell Blues"
- 13. "Effect and Cause"
Essay
I saw an image of someone I once knew today and it made me write down my first impressions. I don't normally tend to do that. Guess that makes me an impressionist;
Looks like there's a storm coming Looks like somebody told you to smile Looks like you're waiting there for someone Looks like you'll be waiting there for a while Guess you'd rather not think about it much Guess you'd rather not think about much at all Guess you know just what they like Guess you don't know much at all Feels like you're just passing the time---sometimes--- Feels like you never really were a friend of mine Feels like ghosts do walk among us And I guess, it looks, as if it feels Like phantom pain from the bee that stung us
I do like impressions though. I once saw a man completely impersonate another man who was not unlike himself if you thought about it. Which I did. 'Who would have thought' needs a question mark at the end of it, doesn't it? A lot of those symbols at the end of things bother me, actually I can't be bothered. They make a symbol in sheet music when the writer wants you to keep playing till the cows come home, but I forget what it's called. I like that idea though. Playing until someone 'decides' it's time to stop based on the feel of the room. What's the longest it could go on? I imagine that every time I see that symbol. What if there was a room that had just the right vibe in it, just the right amount of energy to push, and inspire, and invigorate a conductor and her entire orchestra, to hold that last note until...they couldn't even remember they held it that long? When there's a world record for something, it's an extreme thing. How big is the biggest of its kind? And how did it get to the point where the conditions called for something so massive to be constructed? It's baffling. Beautiful though. Icky thump.
III
Credits
- Jack White : guitar, vocals, production, synthesizer, organ
- Meg White : drums, percussion, vocals
- Regulo Aldama : trumpet
- Jim Drury : bagpipes
- Recorded February 2007 at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
Trivia
- Icky Thump will not feature marimba or piano. It will be the first Stripes album without any piano.
- The album has the most guitar solos Jack White has ever recorded to tape.
- The album marks the first time the band has performed with horns and bagpipes.
- The album marks the first time the band has recorded and mixed an album in a conventional recording studio.
- Icky thump was still, however, recorded to reel-to-reel, and mixed to tape in complete analog fashion.
- The album was recorded in three weeks, the longest the band have ever spent working on a record.
- Icky Thump contains the first spoken dialogue song to appear on one of their albums - "Rag and Bone".
- Icky Thump is the second longest album of the Stripes pantheon thus far, second to Elephant with more than 48 minutes in running time.
- The album’s title is a morphing of the phrase "Ecky thump" which is an exclamation of surprise or wonderment in northern England.
- The synthesizer used in the title track was also used on the song “Telstar” recorded by Joe Meek. It is a Univox synthesizer, one of the first analog synthesizers ever made.
- Jack White used the exact same guitars on Icky Thump that he has recorded with on every White Stripes album.
- “I’m Slowly Turning Into You” is possibly the first song to be written based on a video treatment. This was inspired by one which was given to the White Stripes by Michel Gondry which features Jack walking, followed by many other people. The people start off looking like Jack, and then slowly look more and more like Meg. At the end of the line of people is Meg.
