The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
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Free Music Notes for Get Behind Me Satan
Free Music Review: Progressive yet the least focused
Hit: 4 Stars
Many times the first single can be entirely be misleading. Sometimes people will say the single is the worst song on the album while in terrible records it's actually the best and end up fooling buyers thinking the record was awesome. Not so with Get Behind Me Satan, the 5th album from the White Stripes led by duo Jack and Meg White. Now this is not a terrible record by any means, I mean it sure beats anything those pop punk dudes churn out but this isn't a record with huge commercial appeal like Elephant. Probably even less so.
The album starts out promisingly enough with "Blue Orchid" with Jack's octave-affected guitar doing a catchy riff and singing something about orchids and how old someone is. I don't know but it's a great opening track. Next is the totally weird the Nurse which is led by a dulcimer and it's just an odd track, not necessarily bad just...odd. We do have other songs like My Doorbell or the Denial Twist which are big piano-based numbers and while catchy, you kind of miss the guitars for some reason.
The rest are separated into 2 types of songs. First half is the acoustic/piano stuff like Forever For Her (Is Over For Me) and White Moon with the former being one of his better ballads while the latter has a nice piano part yet it suffers from not really having a sense of melody to latch onto outside of the piano. Take, Take, Take which is a more upbeat acoustic song is alright but the chorus is just irritating. Afterwards we get what's probably this album's We're Going to be Friends with a weirdly upbeat As Ugly as I Am which is actually quite fun to play as well as listen to.
The other type is the big blues rock numbers akin to Ball and Biscuit from Elephant. Problem is outside of the main riff, Instinct Blues just feels way too long and is kind of uninteresting to listen. Red Rain is way better which shifts from soft slide guitar to big loud slide chords a la Seven Nation Army. The album ends with the soft piano I Get Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet). It seems like an appropriate closer given the material on here and it's a nice song to listen to but you probably won't have it on repeat much.
You got to give them credit for at least trying to shake things up a bit. But like one reviewer mentioned once, it feels like they're trying to artificially change their sound rather than letting feel like a natural progression. If on first listen it doesn't appeal, try again. It's an album you can get, not get or get but still thinks it's an underwhelming album anyways.
Free Music Review: Jack may have lost the plot...
Hit: 2 Stars
Ok, here we go... the first track is fine, but it gives one a false hope for everything that's to follow. What I wanna know is... Who are the people writing these glowing reviews? Nobody I know, that's for sure. This record is nearly unbearable, an obvious case of a capable songwriter over-reaching and expecting his listeners to suspend their disbelief. Jack White does not have a voice that can carry a song by itself, and the sparse arrangements on this record force his voice to attempt the impossible. It's a fun voice, don't get me wrong, but it MUST be accompanied by some equally quirky guitar to be listenable. Unfortunately, "Get Behind Me, Satan" pushes the vocals very high in the mix, and decorates them with some honky-tonk piano here, some acoustic guitar there, and annoyance all over the place.
Myself and many of my friends are fans of the previous White Stripes records. We have been for a very long time. Not one of the people I know mentions this album without an apocryphal tone of voice, and most just out-and-out hate it. The regular conversation is something to the effect of "Yeah, I gave it a chance, I listened to it over and over, thinking 'maybe it'll grow on me', but I just started to really dislike it." If you haven't bought it, just hold out for the next one, 'cause there's no way it'll be worse than this.
(and for all the folks who are "personally offended" by my judgement of this record - Jack doesn't need your defense. He'll be just fine whether I liked it or not.)
Free Music Review: Interesting
Hit: 5 Stars
I bought this cd when it was released and was pretty taken back. The music on this cd is different from the whites stripes older cds but it is still interesting to listen to and enjoy. I still listen to this album and most of the songs are pretty cool and fun. I would remcommend this album for those who like the white stripes and those who heard of this band. You'll be in store for something unique!Free Music Review: Yipes, Stripes!
Hit: 4 Stars
Stashing the noisy guitar for a piano to bang on, Jack White decided to take a crossroads left at the Delta of The Blues. The result is an album he bragged about recording in a two week blast. "Get Behind Me Satan" is lo-fi racket without the volume, an album where the marimba plays leads and Meg sings a snippet of a song ("Passive Manipulation"). For a band that prides itself on eclecticism, this is their most left field CD to date.
The time dreaming up Loretta Lynn songs had their influence on "Get Behind Me Satan." "Little Ghost" and "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)" sound like they were meant for Lynn's "Van Leer Rose" project. (I wonder if Dwight Yoakum is flattered by the song-title swipe?) Some of the songs are by contrast humorous ("Take Take Take" - the misbegotten tale of an obsessed fan) to lovely ("Forever For Her Is Over for Me"). Jack White is proving to be a pretty crack songsmith. (His work with the Racountours offers further proof in that department.)
The primitivism that some deride about "Get Behind Me Satan" is actually one of the album's charms for me. There is still something cool about hearing a band play with their blemishes showing. In an age where singers back out of TV appearances if they think their pre-recorded "live" vocal overdubs don't sound complimentary, I am completely OK with The White Stripes deliberately NOT spending three years performing cosmetic surgery in the studio. Even the songs that sound like they need a little work ("Instinct Blues") are entertaining, because "Get Behind Me Satan" is meant to be a long-player. This isn't a collection of singles and easy to MP3 ring-tones. This is a CD meant to be played and followed through the scope of its many diverse ideas and eccentric songs/production. Jack and Meg White are invested in their music enough to take risks and allow the chips to fall where they may. It makes "Get Behind Me Satan" a beacon of hope among the squeaky clean factory bands trying to sell you cookie cutter rock.
Free Music Review: Lots to offer, keep this one handy
Hit: 5 Stars
My kids (1 & 4) love the tracks on this album. My wife does. I do (it's my album). This album has tracks have that White Stripes classic groovy, raw big beat, and fun songs to the more classic slow blues ones to even crazy fast bluegrass style songs like Little Ghost. It is a great all around album, way past the radio hits. This seems to never get old. I put it away for weeks and always find myself craving tracks from it again. I have the last 3 albums from them (with this one being the most recent) and this album is the one I always find myself listening too. The other albums however are great too. If I could offer any negativity I would say that some tracks go from way slow and quiet too quickly to too crazy & loud and back and forth, so the flow is lacking there. It initially took a bit to get used to some of those tracks, but now I find myself craving those too.