After hours of deliberation, I’ve decided that “bluesy” wins the title of Most Insulting Adjective. I understand you may disagree. You’d like to suggest what? “Great”, “cool” and “snazzy” even?

Okay, maybe I’m just lazy, and always throw that label out the moment I hear music that:

1. Includes a harmonica
2. Features sultry and/or throaty vocals or
3. Is called the “devil’s music”

How is this relevant? Idle me was very tempted to tag The White Stripes bluesy, which is criminal, given their perception, imagination, guts, and their being nominated for next month’s MTV Video Music Award for Best Group alongside Linkin Park and Maroon 5. After really listening to them however, I realised I couldn’t find a less fitting adjective for these guys than bluesy.

Vocalist-guitarist Jack White and drummer Meg White call themselves The White Stripes. The Detroit-born, divorced-but-still-friends couple unites the thrashings of punk and the soul of blues with controversial lyrics and emotive vocals. Debuting in 1999 with their self-titled album The White Stripes, they only achieved commercial success with 2003’s release of their 4th album, Elephant.

Jack owns the band. He songwrites, sings, plays a bunch of instruments (he’s cited by Rolling Stone Magazine as the #17 of its “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”), and does almost all the interviews. And he makes things up. Ah, how skillfully he weaves fables about his early days and dons kooky outfits and kookier personas, that the delicate line between fiction and reality seems more faint than ever.

Yes, these accomplished scavengers have ransacked, ravaged and quite comfortably settled into the loft of indie cool, high on their mellow blues, grimy guitar riffs, killer amps and the chi of 50 burning garage-bound bands.

After a brief lull last year, when Jack went off traipsing with his side project, the Raconteurs, he surfaced once again in his trademark red and white. 3 weeks in the studio and they released Icky Thump. Yes, Icky Thump. Please, allow me to explain.

Icky Thump: An olde English expression illustrating astonishment or amazement .. Music e-zine, Uncut.co.uk, loosely translates it into, “Well, I never”, “Bugger me” and essentially, “What the hell”.

So it’s a resurrection of sorts. And a decent one at that. Their traditional blend of gritty garage-rock, blues and brazen nods to heroes Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin has risen again.

It’s also a testament to the front-man’s brilliant guitar skills. With a guitar solo in almost every track, it’s also impossible not to notice. “300mph Torrential Outpour Blues” and “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)” showcase his talents. The misleading “St. Andrew (This Battle Is In The Air)” bursts into a psychedelic classic intensified by another surprising instrument choice to pretty up their palette, the bagpipe.

As always, the free spirit we call Jack, faces the cruel designs of fate in “A Martyr For My Love For You”. The teenage spectral love interest is unattainable perfection who nudges him into an abyss, where he claws desperately for sense, struggling against his primal needs.

Projecting The White Stripes further into the heady realm of experimentation are 2 of the most bizarre numbers. The completely unexpected cover of Patti Page’s “Conquest” pushes dramatic vocals and boasts the crisp mariachi sounds of trumpeter Regulo Aldama. “Rag and Bone” shouts a story of the drifting duo wandering into a mansion, awed by the wealth and riches, punctuated with spoken comments and messy guitar riffs. You can’t help but wonder if they’ve presented us with a 3-min peephole into their past and present.

Alas, Jack may have overdone his guitar solos this time. Perhaps, he’s finally begun to believe himself to be the liberator of rock and, mind-blowing as he is, he’s managed to lengthen every song considerably. Sadly, this has also destroyed the constant urgency they were loved for.

The White Stripes are interesting. They’re a little loud and they clang a lot. They’re not making major changes to their sound but frankly, who cares? They’re simply going deeper into what they do best.

Yep, all in all, Icky Thump’s a real snazzy record.

Rating: 3 ½ / 5

Icky Thump is available at all record stores now.