The White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan (2LP) [THIRD MAN]

Why you'll love it

This Third Man 2LP set spreads the album over four sides in a lenticular gatefold, with a download code. Get Behind Me Satan reached No. 3 on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart and won the Grammy for Best Alternative Album.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Lenticular cover
• Download card included

About the album

Most bands follow a breakthrough by doing the same thing again, but louder. Jack and Meg White went home instead. Jack recorded Get Behind Me Satan in his own house over February and March 2005, produced every note himself, and swapped a good chunk of the fuzz for piano, marimba and some properly strange arrangements.

"Blue Orchid" is the big riff, a squealing, stomping opener that tells you the guitar hasn't gone anywhere. "My Doorbell" is a piano-and-tambourine bounce that sticks for days, and "The Denial Twist" is a jaunty, wobbly singalong. Elsewhere "The Nurse," "White Moon" and "Little Ghost" wander into odder corners, with lyrics that tip their hat to the actress Rita Hayworth, and "Red Rain" brings the heavy blues back with a vengeance.

It first came to vinyl in 2015, ten years on, and has been reissued steadily since. Jack later described the album as a farewell to the parts of his personality he no longer wanted to see, and you can hear the clearing-out in every odd turn. Jack wanted a farewell to the old Detroit days; he got a doorbell song in the charts, which is a farewell of a sort.

Also at Kops: more The White Stripes on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Third Man Records / V2 / XL (cat# TMR-300), a reissue of the 2005 album.