Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 39 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 39
  2. Negative: 1 out of 39
  1. This is a heavyweight album in every sense of the word.
  2. This is by far The White Stripes’ most peculiar record.
  3. Uncut
    80
    A compellingly weird experience. [Jul 2007, p.92]
  4. Icky Thump is freighted with moments of frazzled virtuosity yet may prove excessively outre for most palettes.
  5. Icky Thump positively swarms out of the speakers.
  6. Entertainment Weekly
    100
    Despite all the distortion and teeth-shivering riffs, Icky Thump rivals White Blood Cells in accessibility. [22 Jun 2007, p.68]
  7. Blender
    90
    It's the sound of a band not stretching out so much as digging in: burrowing deeper into loamy soil they know well. [Jul 2007, p.109]
  8. 'Icky Thump' is brilliant, there's no way around that.
  9. The highest highs of Icky can't quite reach the altitude of the band's breakthrough singles, but some of that inadequacy is tempered by the group's more robust sound.
  10. The new album manages to hone the at-points-aimless progressive aspirations of Get Behind Me Satan into sharp, clear-cut musical growth.
  11. I suspect those left cold by Satan will find Icky Thump a welcome reheating.
  12. Its rock is louder, its campiness richer.
  13. If you’re fond of the curious, Icky Thump is the choice White Stripes album.
  14. Billboard
    80
    The Stripes have never had so much fun. [23 Jun 2007]
  15. They've put out six strong albums, consecutively. And without a pause, they've expanded their range without loosing sight of their limits.
  16. Like the White Album, Exile on Mainstreet, or Wowee Zowee, this album's risky lack of sonic cohesion becomes the very through line that binds the work as a whole. Unlike those albums, however, not all of the experiments here are uniformly excellent or thrilling, nor do they all live up to the promise of the wonderful, muted Satan.
  17. With its fuller sound and relaxed flights of fancy, Icky Thump is a mature, but far from stodgy, album -- and, as is usually the case, it's just great fun to hear the band play.
  18. Icky Thump, despite the presence of some simply insane over-indulgence, is a great album.
  19. At 48 minutes, Icky Thump has enough genre-hopping, rip-roaring tunes to get even the 70s rock purist nodding his head again.
  20. If nothing else, this record is fun.
  21. Like his sometime heroes Led Zeppelin, Jack White builds monuments. They're suitable for awestruck visits. But they're no place to settle down.
  22. Such arty, at times enervating, digressions highlight Icky Thump’s curious weight; whereas Elephant’s dinosaur-rock stomp got cut with fragile acoustic turns, there is little reprieve here.
  23. They strike a forceful balance between elemental and ornate.
  24. It's eccentric, it's exhilarating, it is, in parts, absolutely insane. Yet it's never less than absolutely compelling, which is what makes The White Stripes one of the greatest bands of modern times.
  25. As White Stripes albums go, 'Icky Thump' is a goodie, and there's no resting on of laurels either.
  26. "Icky Thump" is really a very odd record indeed, but then, oddness of a particularly bravura nature comes naturally to them.
  27. The title track erupts like a "Seven Nation Army...." The rest is a mixed bag.
  28. Though far from The White Stripes' best work, Icky Thump is still plenty good, brash, and noisy in the way great rock records are supposed to be.
  29. The White Stripes, at the same moment they claim to have finally overcome your entanglements, have provided you the ammunition of a hit-or-miss album.
  30. Everywhere on Icky giant riffs leap and shout, with Flamenco horns and those eerie bagpipes and rhythmic shifts and Jack's impatient vocal kinetics, marking new territories even as the White Stripes again populate them with vintage ideas.
  31. 80
    Icky Thump is a fearless album, braving a bold bunch of weird rock transformations: slick studio radio glam, southern jukebox boogie, Scottish Highlander mandolin jaunts (!!), stuttering mariachi machismo, comedic skits, etc.
  32. Under The Radar
    70
    There is enough vitality in both composition and instrumentality to suggest that continued praise is warranted for this decade-long duo. [Summer 2007, p.86]
  33. Playing at world, at heavy, at soul, [Jack White] arts it up plenty and protests a little.
  34. With Icky Thump they have proven, yet again, that being musically sound in both songwriting and craftsmanship, while knowing how to exercise instrumentation is key in making a solid album in today’s day and age.
User Score
8.6

Universal acclaim- based on 247 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 8 out of 247
  1. DavidR
    Jun 2, 2007
    9
    Brilliant Album, from the funky yet experementive icky thump, to conquest with its spicy mexican influence (first performed by Corky Robbins) Brilliant Album, from the funky yet experementive icky thump, to conquest with its spicy mexican influence (first performed by Corky Robbins) its trumpets are also exquisite. However tracks 6 & 7 which feature a bag pipe do not do it for me, it reminds me of irish folk music, not my type. But little cream soda ignite the white stripes flame with is heavy rock stripped down feeling and its succesor 'rag & bone' another hit, all tracks up to effect and cause are then pure garage rock at its best and white stripes at their best, i would give it a 10, but the big pipes are just not doing it for me, its left me quite shocked. However i believe the best tracks are icky thump, conquest, little cream soda & rag and bone. Full Review »
  2. Tmz
    Jan 3, 2020
    9
    Sujo, brilhante e ousado
    White Stripes traz mais um álbum incrível, é tão estranho como o álbum é tão sujo e ao mesmo tempo tão polido
  3. Mar 17, 2018
    10
    I hadn't really listened to The White Stripes for about ten years and I was a fan but didn't think they were particularly good songwriters butI hadn't really listened to The White Stripes for about ten years and I was a fan but didn't think they were particularly good songwriters but this album is on a whole other level to anything I have heard, the ear bleeding guitar is jaw dropping, riffs are ridiculously good! Its a beautiful sound and there are some classic songs, I would say its a classic rock album. Wow Full Review »