Get Behind Me Satan:
1) What does it mean?
2) Why does Jack White have a curly
mustachio?
Get Behind Me Satan is a rather interesting metaphor, though not as interesting as one may be able to conjure once they take a good look at the words. It is simply this: Jack White is putting his problems behind him now. He's putting his "demons" away and moving on, stating in his recent
Rolling Stone interview that this woudl most likely be the White Stripes' last album in which the content would be slightly dark and depressing, though they don't go through much trouble to hide it on this album. Yes, Jack White is clad in his favorite colors: red, white, and black. I'll leave it to your own imagination to figure out why they use those specific colors, but red and white was used specifically in a Dutch art form knownas
De Stijl. Sound familiar? Right. Despite the various attempts to back the White Stripes into a corner with accusations of being too "gimmicky" and talentless, they have once again come out on top.
Get Behind Me Satan shows changes in their songs, more so than any of their albums. Marimba and piano make their appearance throughout the album, with the raunchy guitar playing left for the few rock 'n' roll tracks on the album. The songwriting is increasingly dark, ranging from such topics as incest, greed, loneliness, and even accusations of the band selling out, thanks to those cheery Detroit elitists.
Meg White's drumming has been constantly slagged by dozens of people, calling it lazy, boring, and just plain stupid. This is not the case at all. Her drumming compliments the music very well, whether that be a bad thing or not. It's minimal, it's laid back, and it keeps the tempo steadily, but never forcefully. She even takes a stab at singing on "Passive Manipulation," a disturbing, short piece about incest. Jack White's creativity is at a newfound peak here, taking his minimalist aesthetic to a new height, but still keping the music interesting with an overdub or two. His singing has become tuneful and clear, a much needed improvement on the Detriot-Indie-Kid yelp he so irritatingly displayed for a few albums. His influences show here, but he never sounds as if he's lifting someone else's style. In fact, he akes something such as bluegrass, or a piano ballad, and turns it into a White Stripes song, yet they still retain that certain faint nostalgia that shines through on the songs. Don't get yours truly wrong, though, this isn't a retro album. It's nothing like that at all, actually.
As always, though, the White Stripes prove that they can still rock out. "Blue Orchid" is easily one of the catchiest singles in awhile; a stomping robo-glam rocker with Jack displaying his peculiar falsetto that he tends to bust out on this album. "Red Rain" is probably the best "tr00" rocker on here, with some fantastic slide-guitar playing. The best songs, though, are probably the most diverse and sometimes even odd ones here. The songs frange from bluegrass jaunts about death ("Little Ghost"), the marimba-driven "The Nurse," self-depricating acoustic folk ("As Ugly as I May Seem"), and best of all, piano ballads ("White Moon," "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet"). Indeed, the latter is quite possibly one of the best White Stripes songs yet, with Jack playing piano solo. The song has a vague Southern feel to it, similar to New Orleans-style piano playing, or late-60s soul. It's a testament to what Jack White can do with just a piano under his hands, as
Get Behind Me Satan is a huge progression from the bombastic rock 'n' roll of
Elephant.
Jack White rocks the mustachio and top hat, because he can.
