The White Stripes: Icky Thump
I was late in jumping on the White Stripes’ bandwagon. I never really got into the songs played on the radio. After Jack Johnson covered We’re Going to Be Friends during a concert I downloaded from archive.org ,I decided to check out what all the buzz was about. I’ve been a big fan of The White Stripes ever since. For my money, the best attribute of The White Stripes is their diversity. From the instruments and voices Jack and Meg use to the musical genres they cross, there is no doubting the creativity and originality of The White Stripes. On the latest album there is a decidedly more bluesy feeling, but not just blues as bagpipes are heard on one of the songs. An early favorite song is You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told). Like the albums preceding it, Icky Thump will endure due to its quality and diversity.
In college, Lifehouse’s album No Name Face got more play on my sweet Aiwa stereo than just about any other album. The ambiguously Christian lyrics were fitting. I still enjoy that album more than those that followed. The new album probably won’t change that because of the phenomenon that attaches music to place and time, but it will come the closest. Who We Are’s songs are distinctively Lifehouse: a slow build-up, breathy lyrics, then a thumping drum with a catchy chorus. Lifehouse isn’t breaking any new ground, but I don’t mind.
I bought this album a couple of months ago because the album’s title is a play on the title of David Gray’s latest album, Life in Slow Motion, which is one of my favorite albums of the last two years and it showed up in the “recommended” section of my itunes store. A stupid reason to buy an album, I know. Before making the purchase, I did read enough about Mika to be intrigued by his background (Lebanon-born, London-based) and I previewed his tracks for the gracious 30 seconds itunes allows. What I like about the album is that Mika uses his voice interestingly: not always good, but almost always interesting. It is almost like another instrument. I’m a big fan of interesting vocals: Raine Meida (Our Lady Peace) and Thom Yorke (Radiohead) come to mind. The lyrics sometimes get silly and sometimes Mika sounds a little too much like Freddie Mercury, but the tunes are very catchy and the album has a fun tone: I’m glad I bought it.
The Travis I know and love is back with its best album since The Man Who. Selfish Jean is a standout track: with lyrics like 
