CD: "Get Behind Me Satan" by The White Stripes; V2 Records.

Release: June 6.

Style: Rock.

My take: Since its formation in 1997, The White Stripes has gained a reputation for rapid-fire album releases (once a year from 1999 to 2003), its minimalist lineup consisting of only two members — vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White — and its straightforward approach to punk-and-blues-fused guitar rock, filled with grit and crunch.

To follow up its highly successful 2003 release, "Elephant," the duo headed back into the studio. But this time around, they shelved their calling-card rock sound, exemplified by songs such as "Seven Nation Army," the initial hit "Fell in Love With a Girl" and "Black Math," in favor of experimentation of genres, styles and instruments. The fruition of the Stripes' labor is "Get Behind Me Satan," an album that explores how far imagination can take music. The title is a shortened version of a Bible passage.

Besides the opening track and lead single, "Blue Orchid," Jack White's guitar work is rarely featured on this album. Instead, what you get is a hodgepodge best described as "whatever The White Stripes wanted to do."

Psychologists analyze children's creativity and intelligence by putting them in a room filled with toys and studying their reactions to them; it seems as though this process was used to record "Get Behind Me Satan." The album runs the instrument gamut from acoustic guitar and pianos to maracas and chimes and is a testament to the band's imagination as well as bravery — straying from what made you famous can be a death knell to an artist's career.

The Stripes experiment with sound as well. "Little Ghost," a tale of romance with a woman who's not alive, is done in the style of an old western; you can practically see sepia-tone pictures and saloon text upon the first bar. Piano-heavy and marimba-laced "Forever for Her (Is Over For Me)" turns its lyrics into a gut-twisting ballad. "The Denial Twist" is an ironically bouncy upbeat song about the inherent risks of love, driven home with clever wordplay ("There you go/denying the truth/and it's hitting in the wisdom in the back of your tooth"). The standout track "My Doorbell" is even bouncier, borderlining pop terrain with its drum-and-piano beat, despite being about pining for post-breakup reconciliation.

With so much worth mentioning, trying to summarize "Get Behind Me Satan" into a few paragraphs is like trying to condense a novel into a leaflet: hard. Nevertheless: The album is weird, eccentric, perplexing, and most likely an acquired taste for longtime fans, but just as likely to win over listeners who previously thought the band was all noise. It is one of those albums that is loved or hated and a subject of debate among fans. I for one think it is the band's best album to date, and a vast improvement over its old material.

Jeremy Castillo is a student at Windward Community College and the editor of the college's newspaper, Ka 'Ohana.