Track Listing

1. Blue Orchid
2. The Nurse
3. My Doorbell
4. Forever For Her
5. Little Ghost
6. The Denial Twist
7. White Moon
8. Instinct Blues
9. Passive Manipulation
10. Take, Take, Take
11. As Ugly As I Seem
12. Red Rain
13. I'm Lonely

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4834 in Music
• Released on: 2005-06-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The fifth album from the Detroit favourites, Get Behind Me Satan, finds stage siblings Jack and Meg White jerking the reins and steering The White Stripes into virgin territory. Gone is the maximal 70s rock sound that powered Elephant, cuts like "Seven Nation Army", replaced by a new emphasis on piano, acoustic guitar, and on numbers like "My Doorbell" and "Blue Orchid", the creeping – and very welcome - influence of Stax soul, classic R&B and disco.

Which isn’t to say the Stripes have left behind their desire for the sort of impulsive, raw garage-rock that defined earlier albums like De Stijl: "Instinct Blues", in particular, will hit you like a shot of old Bourbon. It’s just that by this stage in the Stripes’ career, they’re most interesting when they’re making music that sounds like nothing or no-one else. Listen out, then, for "The Nurse" - a minimal wisp of marimba, piano and seed-shaker interrupted by spasmodic, brutal guitar-drums crashes – or the dainty, Meg-sung "Passive Manipulation", which further muddies the waters of this most complicated of relationships: "Women, listen to your mothers," sings Meg, with an endearing falter, "Don’t just succumb to the wishes of your brothers". All of which adds up to another bemusing, but brilliant family album from the White Stripes. --Louis Pattison

CD Description
This is the fifth album from American blues rock-duo The White Stripes. The album sees Jack and Meg White expanding their palette of sound while sticking to their raw blues influenced indie rock style. The single 'Blue Orchid' is also included.

Customer Reviews

Another great album...
I bought this album after only hearing Blue Orchid and The Nurse, and also because i am a huge White Stripes fan.
The whole album is not dissapointing in the least. There has been doubt previous to the release after Jack White stated that he didn't much use his guitar on the album, but none of these people had heard the album.
Many were put off by Blue Orchid, saying it wasn't "Seven Nation Army", but why would we want to hear an exact replica? Jack wasn't making Seven Nation Army Part 2, it was a new track with a fresh sound.
The White Stripes albums are always slight different; their first, self titled album was ecclectic and noisey, brilliant of course and very very raw. Next up came De Stijl, which sounded quieter than their debut but still as energetic. The lyrics were more mature and the album sounded polished and well made.
Their third album, White Blood Cells was the most "studio-sounding", it featured excellent lyrics and a more folky background.
The big one was Elephant, made in about three weeks this album was a sweet mix of bluesy guitar and quiet, moving songs and of course Seven Nation army.
Their new album, Get Behind Me Satan is probably the most experimental, with the introduction of the Marimba as a prominent instrument (a sort of giant Xylaphone)and more piano than guitar; the album is almost shocking by the way it has been stripped down. The first song Blue Orchid is fantastic and feels very Stripesy, next up is The Nurse, our introduciton to Jack on the Marimba, this song is also very good, the lyrics and rhythm are excellent.
Next is My Doorbell, sounding very fifties and with a catchy tune this is probably their most releasable track after the single out now.
Forever for her (is over for me) is a song on the piano, very nice.
Little ghost, a folky song with some great harmonies.
The Denial twist, fantastic, ecclectic and brilliant!
White moon is chilled out and calm.
Instinct blues is another of the quiet ones, with a bit of guitar, also good.
Passive Manipualtion, short and sweet, sung by Meg, but her voice sounds weaker than cold cold night on Elephant.
Take take take is guitar and rock all the way, fabulous.
As ugly as i seem is sweet and quite quiet.
Red Rain is bizarre and brilliant!
I'm lonely, a good closing track very nice.

This album is definately worth buying given time will become a favourite. BUY IT!!

Comforting
It's really comforting that a band this adventurous can climb such dizzying heights. Record an album in two weeks featuring more Marimba than guitar and STILL headline Glastonbury? Music, it seems, is in a very good state.

The best thing about the White Stripes is the way you can analyse them to death. The artworks full of symbolism and religious imagery, engrossing! And JAck wrote a very thought provoking....thing...yeah, the artwork alone is worth the price, but people ain't like that! They want the music too!

Luckily it delivers, OH IT DELIVERS!

I WOULD say that "The Nurse" is the best track. Built around a Marimba with seemingly sporadic bursts of noise and lyrics about betrayal of trust, how those who you trust with your life could well be the ones to kill you. The White Stripes at their most experimental, adventurous, and best.

There are two other themes that seem to prevail. "Little Ghost" and "Take. Take. Take" seem to be about falling in love with a ghost that only you can see. What a lovely thought.

Meanwhile, tracks such as "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)" toy with the idea of incest....intriguing, seeing as we're still not too sure if "they guys" are brother and sister, hmmm.

See, it's intrigue that makes them. They are...some of the mystics of music. As such it's quite hard to hate them. How could one possibly hate a band this interesting?

Ah, yeah, the music. It isn't to everyone's taste. Some will be expecting (DEMANDING) more Elephant, more riotous rock outs. They WILL be dissappointed, they will spit upon this album and sit in a corner, foetal position, gently rocking, caressing their dog eared copy of White Blood Cells. But for the more adventurous listener, who appreciates the place of the marimba in music, this is a treat, well reccommended.

Marimba!
Get Behind Me Satan is a change of tack for the White Stripes. I was expecting it to follow the example of Blue Orchid, but it doesn't. It twists and turns, and each track gives you something new.

Blue Orchid, the opener and first single, is well known to everyone, and opens the album at a brilliant pace. All albums should have a first track as good as this!

The Nurse is an odd fish. It sounds like Jack is playing the Xylophone (turns out it's actually a Marimba) and Meg is beating him at random intervals with a hammer. I was very worried when I first heard this, it sounded extremely wierd, but I'm pleased to say it's a grower.

My Doorbell is classic Stripes. Fantastic, instant hit. I love this song!

Forever For Her is different again. Pianos galore and not too bad for it. A very strong track.

Little Ghost is again odd. You probably won't like this at first, with some odd vocal harmonising at the end. The lyrics are wierd, but it's grown on me so it's now one of my favourite tracks.

Most people say that the Denial Twist is the best track of the album, but even though it's quite good there are better tracks here.

White Moon starts off softly and grows towards the end of the track. It seems to carry on the ghost theme of the album. It's not brilliant.

Instinct Blues is BRILLIANT. Jack finds his guitar again, and the song is all the better for it. This song reminds me of the Black Keys.

Passive Manipulation is the Meg-led short track in the middle of the album. It's difficult not to like this track. Its a breath of fresh air, breaks up Instinct Blues and Take, Take, Take.

The lyrics on Take, Take, Take are quality. And musically, it's a pretty strong track too. Very good.

As Ugly as I Seem comes out of nowhere. Very quiet, after the previous track it's very easy to overlook this one, but don't. Listen to it on its own and you'll appreciate it a lot more.

For wierd use of instruments, look no further than Red Rain. It opens with a triangle, but then breaks into a bout of tourtured, angry guitar. Fairly good, not the best track, but not the worst either.

I'm Lonely is a fantastic closing track, but the lyrics could raise a few questions.

If you like the White Stripes, and you haven't bought this record, you really should. You can trust Jack and Meg to come up with something odd but not make a dog's dinner of it. This album succeeds. Trust them, they know what they're doing.

And if you've just skipped through the review (and let's face it, it was too long) I didn't like this album when I first heard it, but it grew on me.