QUOTE(The Critic @ Jun 22, 2007 -> 08:25 PM)
I'm not a White Stripes fan (aside from Seven Nations Army), so take that for what it's worth.
I've seen a lot of message board posts praising this song, so I decided to really try to give this an open-minded listen.
I liked the intro to the song. I thought maybe it was going to steer away from what I consider (from my admittedly limited exposure to them) the "typical" White Stripes sound.
But it really didn't, at least not away from the sound of the songs I've heard.
I guess the biggest problem I had with Icky Thump was that it never seemed to find a groove. It had a lot of jerky-sounding breaks in the song, which stopped whatever flow the song was picking up.
It's not a terrible song, but it's not a song I'd buy (or even download for free from the site I found the mp3 on, as it turns out).
I was actually referring to the album as a whole, but I definitely agree with your assessment of the song.