Well, I think the first four albums are sacred gems among their other material. In fact, I've ranked Icky Thump above White Blood Cells, but I can guarantee that's just temporary, until the amusement of a new album wears off. But, I don't think there is a single weak spot on Elephant. There are so many great songs on there... "There's No Home For You Here," "Black Math," "Ball and Biscuit," "Litte Acorns," "Hypnotize," "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" are just a few of the amazing tracks that album has to offer. But, I still feel the debut album captures the essence of The White Stripes the best.

2005's Get Behind Me Satan was a cool idea, but sort of weak. I kept thinking back to all those interviews from years past in which Jack White stated that the point of the band was to never evolve and "keep a good thing going". But that album was a departure for sure, and not necessarily a good one.

Icky Thump seems to be back on track. "Rag and Bone" and "I'm Slowly Turning Into You" are the two highlights of the album, but overall it seems to be a return to something between White Blood Cells and Elephant, approached with the experimentalism of Get Behind Me Satan (only this time it works). As I've said, Jack's physical appearance is very symbolic of the band's evolution. His hair kept getting longer and longer, until he started eating Mariachi bands and wearing their clothes, hence becoming "Fat Zorro" and then moving on to the totally bizarre and misguided Get Behind Me Satan. Now Jack has lost the weight he put on, cut his hair, shaved his mustache, and is sporting red t-shirts and red Dickies work-pants. And, coincidently, the music is a return to blues-rock.

"Somebody told me when the bomb hits, everybody in a two mile radius will be instantly sublimated, but if you lay face down on the ground for some time, avoiding the residual ripples of heat, you might survive, permanently fucked up and twisted like you're always underwater refracted. But if you do go gas, there's nothing you can do if the air that was once you is mingled and mashed with the kicked up molecules of the enemy's former body. Big-kid-tested, motherf--ker approved."