White Stripes

The phrase "Icky Thump" could describe Meg White's rudimentary drumming style, which hasn't changed since the Stripes' 1999 debut. What has changed is Jack White's penchant for picking proggy modal notes like he's had Mellow Candle's Swaddling Songs stuck in his CD player. Other leads sound like a distorted analog synthesizer is channeling bits of Can's Tago Mago or the first two Soft Machine albums. His disciplined meter of lyrical phrasing is as good as any hip-hop Jedi (dig the phrase "You can't be a pimp and a prostitute too").