FEATURE:
Second Spin
The White Stripes – Get Behind Me Satan
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NEXT week…
IN THIS PHOTO: The White Stripes in 2005
I am going to assess a truly underrated album: Nelly Furtado’s Whoa, Nelly! This week, I am looking at an album from a brilliant duo that did not get the same focus as albums like White Blood Cells, and Elephant. It was The White Stripes’ Jack White’s forty-fifth birthday earlier this week, and I put together a playlist that brought in his solo work, stuff with The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather. He is a genius and one of the hardest-working artists of this generation. Normally in this feature, I will write about an album that was given short shrift by critics or did not get the respect it deserved when it was released. Although 2005’s Get Behind Me Satan gained some big reviews and was applauded, not many people speak about the album when they think of The White Stripes! The duo never released a bad album in their career, and Jack White’s songwriting was sharp and agile through Get Behind Me Satan. I did hear a few people grumble in 2005, as 2003’s Elephant is seen as the band’s crowning achievement. Recorded in England, the album is guitar-heavy and features some of The White Stripes’ best material. Get Behind Me Satan retains a lot of the guitar leaning, but it sounds very different! One cannot compare a track like Ball and Biscuit, and Black Math with, say, Red Rain, or Instinct Blues. The biggest difference between Elephant and Get Behind Me Satan is that the crunch and dominance of guitar has been replaced, in some part, with piano and a lighter mood.
Songs such as My Doorbell, and The Denial Twist are stompers that are more Pop in tone compared with Elephant’s Rock and Blues. I think some fans wanted the directness and anthems of Elephant and, when people asses The White Stripes’ cannon today, they sort of see Get Behind Me Satan as great, but inferior to albums such as Elephant, De Stijl, and White Blood Cells – brilliant, but nothing as memorable as Fell in Love with a Girl, Seven Nation Army, or Hotel Yorba! There are numerous reasons why I think Get Behind Me Satan is as strong as Elephant. The White Stripes always came in hard with album openers, and Blue Orchid is a mesh of ragged, tussling guitar strings and Jack White unleashing his brilliant falsetto. It is a great introduction that leads into the strange The Nurse. I love Get Behind Me Satan as it is the band’s broadest album, and I love Elephant, but I think it was a bit too simple in terms of sounds and genres. From the Garage and Rock that dominated The White Stripes’ work pre-2003, here we get marimba on The Nurse, a jaunty piano on My Doorbell, and Country sounds on Little Ghost, and White Moon. If that wasn’t enough, there is Jack White investigating a red-haired star (possibly Rita Hayworth) being hassled by an over-eager fan on Take Take Take; White exasperated at a lover who is not being more ‘willing’ – unlike every animal out there – on Instinct Blues; a rare Meg White vocal in the all-too-brief Passive Manipulation, and we get the beautiful ending of the funny-yet-touching I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet).
Get Behind Me Satan is a wonderfully varied album with no weak spots and so many different ideas working alongside one another! There are some great riffs on Get Behind Me Satan, but they don’t always come from the guitar! Rather than trade on shorter songs that pack a punch, The White Stripes’ fifth studio album, I feel, is underrated. In some ways, the duo would return (to an extent) to Elephant and earlier albums on their final record, Icky Thump, though there are elements of Get Behind Me Satan on Icky Thump. I love the fact that Get Behind Me Satan stands on its own and doesn’t really sound like any other White Stripes album. It is sad that some people ignore it, and not that many people rank it alongside the White Stripes’ best. I think Get Behind Me Satan is one of the most nuanced and rewarding albums from the duo, and one that I keep returning to. I have always loved Jack White as a songwriter, but I think he hits new heights on Get Behind Me Satan. To go from Elephant and create what he did on Get Behind Me Satan is a brave move! Jack White could have repeated that genius album, but he was more curious and ambitious than that. I think Meg White’s percussion is as brilliant as ever, and it is a shame she did not get the same vocal opportunities she did on songs (from Elephant) like In the Cold, Cold Night, and Well It's True That We Love One Another – that would be rectified, slightly, by the time Icky Thump arrived.
The reviews for Get Behind Me Satan are largely positive. This is what AllMusic wrote in their review:
“But despite Get Behind Me Satan's hairpin turns, its inspired imagery and complicated feelings about love hold it together. Though "the ideal of truth" sounds cut-and-dried, the album is filled with ambiguities; even its title, which shortens the biblical phrase "get thee behind me Satan," has a murky meaning -- is it support, or deliverance, from Lucifer that the Stripes are asking for? There are pleading rockers, like the alternately begging and accusatory "Red Rain," and defiant ballads, like "I'm Lonely (But I'm Not That Lonely Yet)," which has a stubborn undercurrent despite its archetypal, tear-in-my-beer country melody. Even Get Behind Me Satan's happiest-sounding song, the joyfully backwoods "Little Ghost," is haunted by loving someone who might not have been there in the first place. The ghostly presence of Rita Hayworth also plays a significant part on the album, on "White Moon" and the excellent "Take, Take, Take," a sharply drawn vignette about greed and celebrity: over the course of the song, the main character goes from just being happy to hanging out with his friends in a seedy bar to demanding a lock of hair from the screen siren. As eclectic as Get Behind Me Satan is, it isn't perfect: the energy dips a little in the middle, and it's notable that "Instinct Blues," one of the more traditionally Stripes-sounding songs, is also one of the least engaging.
Though Jack and Meg still find fresh, arty reinterpretations of their classic inspirations, this time the results are exciting in a different way than their usual fare; and while the album was made in just two weeks, it takes awhile to unravel and appreciate. Get Behind Me Satan may confuse and even push away some White Stripes fans, but the more the band pushes itself, the better”.
Just over fifteen years after its release, Get Behind Me Satan sounds as fascinating and important as ever! If you have not heard the album, go stream it when you can, as The White Stripes sound completely committed and wonderful throughout. One could argue they created better albums than Get Behind Me Satan, but I do not think they ever released anything as eclectic, interesting and intoxicating! From the unusual pull of The Nurse, through to the emotional As Ugly as I Seem, The White Stripes run a gamut of situations and sounds in the pursuit of excellence. Whilst not particularly underrated or under-assessed, Get Behind Me Satan does not get talked about as fervently as other White Stripes albums, and I barely hear any of the songs from the album on the radio – occasionally Blue Orchid or My Doorbell will be spun! I think every song is a treat, and everyone needs to investigate…
AN utterly sensational album.