This came out in 2005 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
There’s only so much you can do with one guitar, some drums and a handful of old blues licks. And after four albums, The White Stripes would seem to have exhausted all those options.
So fans probably shouldn’t be surprised that Jack and Meg White are trying to spread their creative wings on their fifth disc Get Behind Me Satan. But they might be a little freaked at just how far the formerly married members of this Detroit duo are willing to go for sonic redemption. And the folks who fell in love with the band’s hooky hits like Fell In Love With A Girl and Seven Nation Army — well, they might see this whole affair as blasphemous.
Of course, you get the feeling that’s part of the point to Get Behind Me Satan. Musically experimental, sonically challenging and willfully uncommercial both in approach and execution at times, this is the Stripes’ most diverse, distinctive, difficult and daring disc, with 13 songs that seem clearly designed to push the limits of the band and the listener.
Things start off normally enough with the opening single Blue Orchid, built from the usual blueprint of distorto guitar, thumpy drums, a falsetto vocal and a hook sharp enough to qualify as a weapon. But if that’s the bait, the rest of the disc might qualify as a switch. Right after that token rocker, Jack puts down his guitar (or at least unplugs it) for about half the disc, plunking out his melodies on piano and — for some reason — marimba. Meg is often relegated to a supporting role, supplying the occasional crashing cymbal for emphasis.
The new instrumentation is accompanied by equally surprising stylistic changes. The noisy Nurse sounds like Ray Davies reworking Lumpy Gravy with Sonic Youth; My Doorbell is a bouncy piano-pop ditty; Forever For Her (Is Over For Me) and Take Take Take sound like outtakes from Exile On Main St.; and I’m Lonely (But I Ain’t That Lonely Yet) — is it just us, or do all these titles make you think of Jack’s former flame Renee Zellweger? — is a country-gospel ballad that wouldn’t have been too out of place on the Loretta Lynn album Jack produced.
Jack eventually picks up his six-string for the acoustic backporch Americana of Little Ghost and the folksy As Ugly As I Seem, but those hoping for more rawk will have to make do with the Delta neck-wringer Instinct Blues and the slide-guitar blooz of Red Rain. They’ll also have to make do with Jack’s disorienting and deliberate underproduction, which sometimes sounds like the disc was recorded in a dirt house with the microphones set up outside.
Not that I’m complaining. Personally, I think Get Behind Me Satan is a successful experiment, even if it isn’t their hardest-rocking or most accessible work. But judging by the wildly varied reaction I’ve seen already, plenty of folks will be hoping Jack and Meg put all this weirdness behind them and stick to guitar and drums next time.
