The White Stripes – Walking With A Ghost – EP

Walking With A Ghost – EP (2005)

B-

1. Walking With A Ghost 2. The Same Boy You’ve Always Known 3. As Ugly As I Seem 4. The Denial Twist 5. Screwdriver

I just don’t particularly care for this era of the White Stripes. Not nearly as much as I dislike the Dead Weather, of course, but still. Jack’s voice was whiny and grating, the lyrics were pretentious angry nonsense, and they released mediocre indie rock songs as singles. Two examples of such singles are found on this EP – “The Denial Twist” and the title track, a cover of a song originally by Tegan & Sara, everybody’s favorite identical twin sister lesbian duo (not with each other, you sick fuck). The only reason I’ve ever heard of them is because of this cover, but they and the White Stripes don’t seem like as much of an incongruous fit as everyone seems to think… they were (are? I have no idea if T&S are still around) both image-conscious sibling (ahem… “sibling”) duos who reached the height of their popularity in the mid-2000s. And the song selection is a refreshing departure from Jack’s usual habit of covering ancient blues songs and/or gangsta rap. But aside from the clever “insist/exist” pun, it’s just not that interesting of a song, despite the Stripes’ game attempt to recast it with jagged, robotic guitar riffs.

The rest of the EP is devoted to live cuts of varying quality. In brief, I like the clap-along acoustic version of “The Same Boy You’ve Always Known,” performed in front of an ever-receptive Brazilian audience (man, they just love their rock ‘n roll down in South America, don’t they? Every time I see a clip of a rock concert down there, all I ever see is these waves of hundreds of thousands topless women and shirtless dudes rabidly waving soccer flags around like they’re getting a BJ from Jesus himself. Even if it’s, like, a Gavin DeGraw concert or something. The enthusiasm is cool, but they go apeshit for weird stuff sometimes. Like soccer, for instance). I’m less enamored with live-on-the-radio versions of “As Ugly As I Seem,” which for some reason goes on for over five minutes, and “The Denial Twist,” which at least sounds different played on guitar rather than piano, but thanks to the sorta gross-sounding distortion Jack is using, isn’t really any better. Though that song’s OK, I guess. Whatever. Fortunately, a smokin’ version of “Screwdriver” saves this EP from further mediocrity. In conclusion, older songs good, new songs not so much, but nowhere near as bad as the Godzilla movie from the late ‘90s with Matthew Broderick. I’m totally watching it right now. Not that I want to be, but the Yankees suck so there’s nothing else on.

I think I make good choices with my time.