Gangsters retire and move to Miami; rock stars never retire, but some do move to Nashville, have kids, and start making records by the numbers. Who wouldn’t? It’s not like you’d need to impress anybody anymore. Exhibit A: Icky Thump, the 6th LP from the Artists Formerly From Detroit, the White Stripes. Icky Thump follows a similar template as last year’s under-appreciated Get Behind Me Satan—open with an iconoclastic berserker of a single and spend......

Here are our picks for the week... Annie – Anniemal “Kylie Minogue for hipsters.” The Aquabats – Charge!! The first release in nearly six years finds the Aquabats recharged with more of their quality playful pop-punk. Coldplay – X&Y Old fans should continue to love their sound, but don’t expect any variations from that typical Colplday format. Kraftwerk – Minimum-Maximum A 2-disc recording of their 2004 European tour live show that sounds just as......

Apart from its satisfying lead-off single, "Blue Orchid," we're not really feeling "Get Behind Me Satan," the new album from Detroit's White Stripes. While the songs are catchy enough, they are undone by deliberate idiosyncracies, such as a distinct overreliance on the common household xylophone and an odd Appalachian fetish. Take "The Doorbell," for example. This has an appealing, schoolyard kind of a beat, and might be a good theme song for a sitcom......