The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
Jamie Kohns on June 6th, 2005
Jack White sounds like shit. I think that’s why so many people love him- he’s more like you or I was in a high school garage band, except he’s gone full-out rock star with it. While I’m not going to be adding more than a couple tracks from Get Behind Me Satan to my iPod, that’s what’s most interesting about the album. Let me try to explain…The music industry needs to change- digital media is kickin’ its ass, and it’s struggling to keep hold of it’s old premises. It used to be that if you heard a song you liked, you’d go out and buy the album for $15-$20, but today, comsumers have a variety of options in music-buying: they can still buy the whole album from traditional outlets, or they can cherry pick the tracks they like via digital music services like Rhapsody, Napster, Yahoo! Music, or (bleh, gag, cough) iTunes for less than a buck a piece. This ability to buy “only the hits” means that artists no longer need to produce a full album of great tracks (not that they always did, or even felt the need to) to be succesful. Rather, they can experiment with style, genre and form more freely- this is the chosen path of Get Behind Me Satan. The Stripes (or Jack White, if you please) blend genres, jump styles, and generally meander all over the musical roadmap. Screamers like Blue Orchid, in a traditional guitar-riff style, will please fans of previous Stripes’ work, while the marimba-laden The Nurse may break as a hit wth the AAA market. They might even score with country yokels- er, listeners- with tracks like I’m Lonely (But I Ain’t That Lonely) (yep, it’s just like it sounds- just add piano). My point is: this can be considered smart production from a multi-talented songwriter, or purely trying score on as many fronts as commercially possible (see: selling out), but it’s the way things are headed. So, this isn’t really a review, because there’s no point in trying to describe the album without going track-by-track. Go get yourself on a digital service, and take the tracks you like.
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