Icky Thump
Encyclopedia
Icky Thump is the sixth and final studio album by US alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 band The White Stripes
The White Stripes
The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...

. It was released June 15, 2007 in Germany, June 18, 2007 in the rest of Europe, and June 19, 2007 in the rest of the world. It was the band's first album on Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

.

Icky Thump entered the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

 at number one and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 with 223,000 copies sold. By late July, Icky Thump was certified gold in the United States. As of March 8, 2008, the album has sold 725,125 copies in the US. On February 10, 2008, the album won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...

.

Recording and production

After Get Behind Me Satan
Get Behind Me Satan
Get Behind Me Satan is the fifth album by American alternative rock band The White Stripes, released on June 7, 2005 on V2 Records. Though still basic in production style, the album marked a distinct change from its guitar-heavy 2003 predecessor, Elephant...

, Icky Thump marks a return to the punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

, garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...

 and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 influences for which the band is known. Additionally, the album introduces Scottish folk music, avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

, trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

, and bagpipes
Bagpipes
Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...

 into the formula, whilst simultaneously reintroducing older characteristics such as the first studio recording of the early White Stripes song "Little Cream Soda".

Icky Thump was recorded and mixed entirely in analog at Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

's Blackbird Studio by Joe Chiccarelli. According to Chiccarelli in an interview with HitQuarters
HitQuarters
HitQuarters is an international music industry publication and contact database founded in 1999. It is noted for in-depth interviews with industry figures, with past subjects including Simon Cowell, Martin Kierszenbaum, Jason Flom, Diane Warren, Peter Edge, Ron Fair and RedOne, as well as its A&R...

, the band had already rehearsed and demoed around half the album, with the rest being conceived in the studio. The album took almost three weeks to record—the longest of any White Stripes album. The recording differed from previous albums in that White had the comparative luxury of recording to 16-track analog rather than his usual 8-track. Also, 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.". Trumpet player Regulo Aldama, who appears on "Conquest", was discovered by Jack White at a local mexican restaurant.

Jack White
Jack White (musician)
Jack White , often credited as Jack White III, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and occasional actor...

 said that the album would appeal to fans of the band's self-titled debut
The White Stripes (album)
The White Stripes is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band The White Stripes, released on June 15, 1999. The album was produced by Jim Diamond and vocalist/guitarist Jack White, recorded in January 1999 at Ghetto Recorders and Third Man Studios in Detroit...

, suggesting a stripped-down garage rock sound. A statement on the band's official website (spuriously attributed to "Kitayna Ireyna Tatanya Kerenska Alisof" of the "Moscow Bugle", a reference to the 1966
1966 in film
The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...

 Batman film
Batman (1966 film)
Batman, often promoted as Batman: The Movie, is a 1966 film based on the Batman television series, and the first full-length theatrical adaptation of the DC Comics character of the same name. Released by 20th Century Fox, the film starred Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. The film was...

) humorously claims that:
A video of The Stripes in the studio working on the album can also be found at their site, although the aforementioned statement has this to say about the song: "The actual music has been replaced with mid eighties sampling keyboard technology to prevent what industry analysts are now calling 'song poaching.'"

Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

s online site had an interview with Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :...

 in which he said he would be directing a video for "I'm Slowly Turning Into You". He mentions the idea for the video. Gondry also says that the video idea came first, and after mentioning the idea to Jack White, White wrote the song to fit that idea.

Several tracks from the album were leaked, and on May 30, 2007, Chicago radio station Q101 aired the entire album without the band's permission. Jack called into the station and reacted angrily about them playing it. There is speculation that the label supplied the album to the station in order to promote its release. In the liner notes of Icky Thump, "Electra" is thanked on the second line, just after God. According to Ben Blackwell, Jack White's nephew, this is not directed towards the radio DJ, Electra, but to a pet Jack and Meg White used to have.

The White Stripes announced the completion of Icky Thump on February 28, 2007. The title is derived from "ecky thump", a Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

 colloquial response of surprise, popularized by an episode
Kung Fu Kapers
Kung Fu Kapers is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies — a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Ecky-Thump"....

 of the 1970s UK comedy series The Goodies
The Goodies
The Goodies are a trio of British comedians who created, wrote, and starred in a surreal British television comedy series called The Goodies during the 1970s and early 1980s combining sketches and situation comedy.-Honours:All three Goodies now have OBEs...

. On Later with Jools Holland
Later with Jools Holland
Later... with Jools Holland is a contemporary British music television show hosted by Jools Holland. A spin-off of The Late Show, it has been running in short series since 1992 and is a part of BBC Two's late-night line-up, usually at around 11pm to 12 midnight...

 (broadcast June 1, 2007) Jack attributed the album's name to its use as an exclamation by his wife
Karen Elson
Karen Elson is a British model, singer-songwriter and guitarist.As a child, Elson attended North Chadderton School in Chadderton with her twin sister, filmmaker Kate Elson. She began working as a model as a teenager....

, who is from Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

. He added that the deliberate misspelling was to make it easier for an American audience to identify with. The liner notes for Icky Thump also suggest the spelling variation was due to concerns over copyright infringement.

Ironically, the Pearly Kings and Queens
Pearly Kings and Queens
Pearly Kings and Queens, known as pearlies, are an organised charitable tradition of working class culture in London, England.The practice of wearing clothes decorated with pearl buttons originated in the 19th century. It is first associated with Henry Croft, an orphan street sweeper who collected...

 costume theme that the band used for this album is a traditional Cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...

 outfit, somewhat contrary to the Northern dialect of the title.

Theme

Like all White Stripes album, there is a central yet loose theme to the songs and album. Jack White told Blender (magazine)
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....

 in July 2007 that "[Icky Thump] is about feeling positive about being alive, taking deep breaths and just being really happy."

Promotion and release

The album artwork features Jack and Meg dressed as Pearlies
Pearly Kings and Queens
Pearly Kings and Queens, known as pearlies, are an organised charitable tradition of working class culture in London, England.The practice of wearing clothes decorated with pearl buttons originated in the 19th century. It is first associated with Henry Croft, an orphan street sweeper who collected...

.

To promote Icky Thump before its release, the band distributed custom-designed boxes and previewed tracks from the record through Ice Cream Man
Ice Cream Man (business)
Ice Cream Man is a business entity whose stated goal is to give away 500,000 free units of ice cream throughout the United States. Since its founding in 2004, Ice Cream Man has given away approximately 300,000 units of ice cream. In the process the organization has become a fixture at music...

. The ice cream promotion focused on the Coachella, 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

In addition to being released on CD and 180 gram vinyl, the band released the album on a limited edition 512 MB USB drive. There are two versions, one of which depicts Jack, the other depicting Meg. The pressing was limited to 3,333 of each, and were shipped the week of the U.S. release. Each drive contained the album in Apple lossless format
Apple Lossless
Apple Lossless Apple Lossless Apple Lossless (also known as ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), or ALE (Apple Lossless Encoder) is an audio codec developed by Apple Inc. for lossless data compression of digital music. After initially being proprietary for many years, in late 2011 Apple open sourced...

.

The 180g vinyl edition contains alternate versions of both "Icky Thump" and "Rag and Bone". "Icky Thump" is a slightly different mix to the digital version and is also edited to be 14 seconds shorter. "Rag and Bone" is also a different mix but in addition contains totally different 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.

The sound quality of the digital versions has been criticized for being mastered too loudly and with excessive peak limiting. Critics claim this results in clipping or "digital distortion" which can be heard as crackling, particularly during bass drum hits. The vinyl version was mastered by Steve Hoffman.
A special mono mix of Icky Thump was available on 180 gram vinyl for a short time to Third Man Vault Premium Account subscribers.

Reception

The album received very positive reviews, with an overall average rating of 80 at Metacritic.com. Barry Nicolson with British magazine NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

 wrote, "Icky Thump is brilliant, there's no way around that." Commenting on the album's "fuller sound and relaxed flights of fancy," Heather Phares, with AMG, said "Icky Thump is a mature, but far from stodgy" album, and that "it's just great fun to hear the band play." Jon Dolon, a critic for Blender magazine, remarked "It's the sound of a band not stretching out so much as digging in: burrowing deeper into loamy soil they know well." In one of the more negative reviews, Josh Tyrangiel
Josh Tyrangiel
Josh Tyrangiel is a journalist, and editor of Bloomberg Businessweek. He joined the magazine following its acquisition by Bloomberg L.P. in December 2009. Prior to joining Bloomberg Businessweek, Tyrangiel was deputy managing editor of TIME magazine and managing editor of TIME.com...

 with TIME magazine remarked, "The White Stripes are too weird and talented to be boring, but it sounds like they might be a little bored." Ultimately giving the album 3.5 out of 5 stars and giving an (A-) on his website, Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

, with Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

, 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
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

, Jack White builds monuments. They're suitable for awestruck visits. But they're no place to settle down."

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 Magazine named Icky Thump as the 2nd best album of 2007. Furthermore, the album placed #17 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.

Track listing

All songs by Jack White
Jack White (musician)
Jack White , often credited as Jack White III, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and occasional actor...

, except where noted.
  1. "Icky Thump
    Icky Thump (song)
    "Icky Thump" is a song recorded by the American alternative rock band The White Stripes. Written by Jack White, it is the first single released from Icky Thump.-History:...

    " – 4:17
  2. "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You're Told)
    You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You're Told)
    "You Don't Know What Love Is " is a song written and recorded by the American alternative rock band The White Stripes. The song was first played live on June 29, 2007 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and is the second track from their sixth studio album Icky Thump. The track was released as a CD single...

    " – 3:54
  3. "300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues
    300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues
    "300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues" is a song written and recorded by The White Stripes. It is the third track from the album Icky Thump and is also on the B-side of the single "You Don't Know What Love Is "...

    "  (Jack White, Meg White) – 5:28
  4. "Conquest
    Conquest (song)
    "Conquest" is a song written by Corky Robbins and popularized in the 1950s by Patti Page. "Conquest" was also covered by The White Stripes on their 2007 album Icky Thump, which features Regulo Aldama on trumpet...

    " (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


Bonus tracks
  1. "Baby Brother" (bonus track on the Japanese and iTunes edition) – 2:10
  2. "Tennessee Border" (Hank Williams) (live, bonus track on iTunes pre-order edition) – 2:09

Personnel

The White Stripes
  • Jack White
    Jack White (musician)
    Jack White , often credited as Jack White III, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and occasional actor...

     – vocals
    Singing
    Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

    , guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

    s, keyboards
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

    , synthesizer
    Synthesizer
    A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

    , production
    Record producer
    A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

    , mixing
    Audio mixing (recorded music)
    In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...

  • Meg White
    Meg White
    Megan Martha "Meg" White is an American drummer best known for her work in the Detroit rock duo The White Stripes.-Early life:...

     – drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

    , percussion
    Percussion instrument
    A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...

    , vocals


Additional personnel
  • Regulo Aldama – trumpet
    Trumpet
    The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

     on "Conquest"
  • Jim Drury – bagpipes
    Bagpipes
    Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...

     on "Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn" and "St. Andrew"
  • Steve Hoffman – vinyl mastering
    Audio mastering
    Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...

  • Vlado Meller – digital mastering

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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