The White Stripes (2 stars)
Get Behind Me Satan
Rock purists raged when Bob Dylan went electric; I doubt the same furor will greet the White Stripes' conversion to piano. Today, people demand change and too many folks are scared to fault anything the White Stripes do, lest they have their hipster permits revoked.
"My Doorbell" is probably the best twist on the Stripes' new keys—pumping piano, tricky vocal hook, fine display of Ms. White's deceptively minimal percussive skills. "Forever for Her (Is Over for Me)" takes on singer-songwriterdom, but with enough blues-rock burn to keep confession from lapsing into self-pity.
Then things start going south with the faux-Appalachian folk of "Little Ghost," and not in the way Mr. White intends. "White Moon" is like Ben Folds at his most melodramatic, replete with ponderous chords and strings of mirage/garage/montage/massage rhymes. "Instinct Blues" picks up as it tries to handle both Plant and Page with one hand, but we're soon bogged back down in these unfinished-feeling and overlong numbers. None of the songs on this album had been performed live or even fully finished before the White Stripes went into the studio, but such a drastic change in approach might have needed a little more working on/out.
I played Get Behind Me Satan for a committed White Stripes fan, and he was underwhelmed; an overdramatic young person who read the liner notes declared them pretentious—I reveal no names, for the safety of their respective coolness licenses. But I'll go on record: This album ain't so hot.
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Robbers on High Street (2.5 stars)
Tree City
Always nice to hear an out-front piano in alterna-pop, and the Robbers use it smartly on "Spanish Teeth," counterpointing buzzy guitars against the piano's emotional intimacy. But a hundred acts do that sorta thing, and while several tracks, notably "Japanese Girls," surge and break with likable gusto, a lot of Tree City falls one hook shy of sticking in your memory. Live performance, though, will firm some of the so-so songs into better rockers.