Afternoon Baseball

...rocks, baby. A little less guitar and a little more experimentation, but still plenty of barnburners. Even when the piano takes over, the songs are still just good. Jack White is that talented, and his sister/wife/whatever Meg is the perfect fit as his drummer, even though she probably would not make it even as a pop singer's session drummer.

Preview it here at scenestars.net
The album rocks out with the opener "Blue Orchid," with high-pitched vocals and hard riffs backed by harder drumming and confrontational lyrics. The heaviness continues on tracks such as "Instinct Blues," "Red Rain" and the piano-driven "The Denial Twist" , while "As Ugly As It Seems" recalls the folksier, poignant feel of "You've Got Her In Your Pocket," -- in my opinion the best song they've ever done, and one of my favorites, period.
The only down track, and even this is not too bad, might be "Little Ghost."

The final verdict? Maybe not as good as Elephant, but then again that is one of the best albums of this decade. It's really good, and deserves the spotlight in a year that has already produced a lot of very solid releases from established acts.