Although Jack White's one-man-Zep routine still generates energy on the title tune and elsewhere, he seems more engaged on numbers that consist of something other than familiar power chords and Meg White's all-I-really-need-is-a-ride-cymbal drumming. The mariachi mayhem on the cheeky "Conquest," the bagpipe-fueled stomp of "St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air)" and "Rag and Bone," which equates record making with flea-marketing, may be messier than those tracks on which Jack casts himself as a trad-music archivist, but they're also lower in joy-squelching pretentiousness.
Much of Icky Thump is a joke. Thank goodness.
