Curious about: the White Stripes, Ryan Adams, Spoon, and Interpol
By WILL SPITZ | June 11, 2007
White Stripes |
Four albums scheduled for release in the coming weeks that we’re curious about: the White Stripes’ Icky Thump (Warner Bros., June 19); Ryan Adams’s Easy Tiger (Lost Highway, June 26); Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge, July 10); and Interpol’s Our Love To Admire (Capitol, July 10). We’ve been e-hanging out in the realm of MySpace to get ourselves some sneak peeks, because, uh, we definitely didn’t download any of the albums illegally and therefore can’t tell you that Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is Spoon’s finest work and a contender for album of the year.
The White Stripes, “Icky Thump”
The title track and opening song from Jack and Meg’s Warner Bros. debut is based on a growling keyboard and steady bass-drum-and-distorted-guitar quarter notes — an icky thump, as it were. Aside from a bizarre bagpipes-sounding synth break, the song is vintage Stripes: simple drums, Jimmy Page riffage, blistering mutant-blues guitar leads. Nothing to write home about, but enough to get us moist with anticipation for the rest of the album.
Ryan Adams, “Two” featuring Sheryl Crow
As Stereogum pointed out, this mom-friendly song sounds as if it could be the sequel to “Harder Now That It’s Over” from Adams’s 2001 album Gold: same laid-back feel, same chord construction, similar melody. Crow is relegated to way in the background — too bad, since her harmonies are the best thing the song has going for it.
Spoon, “The Ghost of You Lingers”
One of the strangest songs Spoon have recorded, “The Ghost of You Lingers” is based on insistent eighth-note piano chords and Britt Daniel’s creepy, catchy echo-chamber vocals. There isn’t a guitar or a drum — or any other instrument for that matter — in sight. It’s an odd teaser for a groove-heavy album, but a rad song nonetheless.
Interpol, “The Heinrich Maneuver”
Unfortunately, the title is the most interesting thing about the first single from Interpol’s first major-label album, which finds New York’s Joy Division fetishists picking up where they left off on songs like “Slow Hands” from their last album, 2004’s Antics — upbeat yet dark, vaguely catchy yet ultimately forgettable.
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