Get behind the White Stripes

Following the success of their last album, the Grammy-winning "Elephant," the White Stripes did pretty much what everyone didn't expect them to do: they shed most of the elements that made up "Elephant" in favor of a quieter experience. The new album, "Get Behind Me Satan," was recorded and mixed, famously, in two weeks in typical White Stripes fashion.

On "Elephant" it sounded like the Stripes, who consist of guitar-player/singer Jack White and drummer Meg White, were often trying to channel the power of 90's alternative music through distortion. On "Satan," instead of finding distortion you find quieter instruments like piano and marimba being employed in place of the loud guitars. "Get Behind Me Satan" is an eclectic, schizophrenic experience, featuring a variety of musical styles and sounds including a synth-sounding guitar, country music, blues, and straight ahead, rollicking rock and roll.

There are few genuinely modern rock moments on "Satan." Lead single "Blue Orchid" is the White Stripes answer to the 1980's New-Wave sound that is being used by every modern rock band still not obsessed with grunge. Listening to "Satan" for the first time you might believe that most of the album will follow the template that "Blue Orchid" lays down, but this song is really a flower that stands alone.

The other truly 'rock' song on "Satan" is "Instinct Blues." This loud, dirty blues jam is the most sexually oriented song ever by the White Stripes, describing to a non-complying lover how "everyone that's under your shoe, and every bird and bee in the jungle, too, and everything in the ocean blue knows exactly what to do. So why don't you?"

Many of the more interesting moments on "Satan" are the quieter songs. "Little Ghost" sounds like something the Carter Family might have released in their hey-day, and as a result is more country than ninety-nine percent of what's coming out of Nashville today. Jack White recently produced country legend Loretta Lynn's album "Van Lear Rose," so maybe these influences should be expected. There are more country influences on the songs "Forever For Her (Is Over For Me) and haunting album closer "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet), but they're greatly understated compared to the backwoods "Little Ghost."

"The Denial Twist" really isn't quiet, but it isn't loud either. This song rocks like a stripped down Jim Steinman-as-sung-by-Meatloaf tune, overblown but still only employing the basic instrumentation of piano and drums. "Take, Take, Take" has a sound that is very charming and sweet, much like its subject matter, deceased actress Rita Hayworth. Listen closely, though, and bitter undertones are noticeable as the song discusses how the famous are taken advantage of. These bitter and dark tones continue on "As Ugly as I Seem."

"As Ugly As I Seem," oddly enough, would fit quite nicely onto the Smashing Pumpkins' 1996 box set "the Aeroplane Flies High" for reasons both lyrical (self-centered broodings) and instrumental (acoustic guitar and resonant drums) and thus is by far the Stripes' most self-loathing song to date.

"The Nurse" is the strangest sounding song of them all on "Get Behind Me Satan", which would make its placement as track two a little odd if it were not the best song on the album, which it is. It's at times both soothing through the use of marimbas and piano as well as aggressively demonic with the combination of cymbal crashes and guitar strikes that occur at irregular intervals, which is exactly how death is given out by the nurses and maids in the song. The music fits the lyrics like a tailor-made suit, talking about how things that heal also kill. We are assured in the song that Jack and Meg will never resort to actions such as this, as Jack sings "I'm never going to let you down" in the chorus. And on "Get Behind Me Satan," the White Stripes definitely do not.