When the first single from the White Stripes’ new record, “Icky Thump,” landed in the Top 40 of Billboard’s Hot 100 last week, those anticipating the Detroit band’s sixth studio album had to scratch their heads. Hmm, that had never happened before. Could it be a coincidence that the Stripes’ first release for a major label after 10 years of grassroots stewardship was making its way around Top 40 radio before the album even came out? A powerhouse like Warner Bros., whatever its artist-friendly reputation, exists solely to sell records, and sell records it was going to do, even if it had to splatter the airwaves with its new act’s signature red, black, and white color scheme.

So the question is: Why is this media behemoth spending so much money to promote a veteran rock band whose last album, 2005’s “Get Behind Me Satan,” sold a paltry (by major label standards) 800,000 copies — about half as many as its predecessor, 2003’s “Elephant”? Maybe because it figured the relatively poor sales were a result of the Stripes’ excessive experimentation on “Get Behind Me Satan,” which strayed from the group’s bruising guitar-drum dynamic in favor of an acoustic, piano-based formula. Or maybe it’s because the label figures that the group has nowhere to go but forward at this point in its career — into the mainstream stratosphere, where the millions spent on music videos and widespread exposure come back tenfold.

This is where great big corporations and little idiosyncratic bands lose connection. With “Icky Thump,” the guitarist-singer-genius Jack White and his not-so-sister-drummer Meg White return with a set of buzzsaw rockers and folky stompers that bring the duo back to basics, which in their case is about as basic as basics get. The Whites have always celebrated the limitations inherent in their minimalist guitar-drums format. Mr. White frequently calls it their “little red box,” and has boasted several times that a few of the songs on “Icky Thump” could easily have been on the group’s first album back in 1999. Indeed, in an era when young bands are vilified for making what sounds like the same album over and over (and what band doesn’t, really?), the Stripes have cleverly avoided the trap by proudly doing exactly that. If they drifted from that credo a bit with “Satan,” they’re right back on track with “Icky Thump.” Warner Bros. is likely ecstatic. Fans may not be so sure. And the mainstream probably doesn’t care.

The reason the mainstream is even a concern is because the White Stripes have always padded their quirkier habits with a handful of undeniably catchy riffs and melodies on each album, from 2001’s “Fell in Love With a Girl” (off “White Blood Cells”) to 2005’s “My Doorbell” (off “Satan”). This has been their ticket to profitability. But “Icky Thump” offers no such instant gratification. The lead single and title track is a typical slice of White-on-White violence, with Meg’s earthshaking kick drum laying the road for Jack’s power chord assault. There’s nothing wrong with the song, which offers a humorous take on immigration in America (“Who’s using who? Well you can’t be a pimp and a prostitute, too.”), except that its chief use is to remind people how fresh this all sounded back when the Stripes were recalibrating the sound of rock at the turn of the century.

But now that bands such as the Black Keys and Wolfmother have picked up the baton and helped restore rock ‘n’ roll to its unvarnished glory, the White Stripes’ style doesn’t sound quite as stylish anymore. They augment the title track with a cracking bagpipe solo, of all things, but after a few listens, fans might find themselves yearning for the similar pleasures to be derived on 2000’s “De Stijl.” The band is never at a loss for ideas; what it needs more than ever is tunes.

“I’m bringing back ghosts that are no longer there,” Mr. White sings on “300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues,” and the ambiguity of the sentiment probably rings all-too-true to longtime fans. The power of the novelty that is the White Stripes (the color-coded design, the brother-sister act, the mind-blowing Son House covers, etc.) has faded over the years and left only Jack and Meg — two real people with a couple of instruments and, now, a major label record contract.

“Bone Broke,” “Little Cream Soda,” and “I’m Slowly Turning Into You” each offers a patented Jack White power riff, which still throws a white-hot spark when nailed to one of Meg’s childlike thudding rhythms. Elsewhere, the Scottish folk ditty “Prickly Thorn, but Sweetly Worn” and the clever country tune “Effect and Cause” feature Jack’s terrific skill for turning a phrase and reinterpreting not just the roots of the music he makes, but the roots of the roots. Will you be humming them three months from now? The smart money says no. The duo does score big points with “Rag and Bone,” a talkabilly piece that casts Jack and Meg as junk-hunters and hitches a ride on the back of Jack’s spine-tingling power jabs.

But perhaps the most representative song on “Icky Thump” is the group’s cover of “Conquest,” originally sung by Patti Page in the 1950s and re-imagined by the Stripes as a Spaghetti Western send-up, with crackling mariachi trumpets, a yelping title-card of a refrain, and tumbleweed rolling through the background. The kitschy success of the song serves mostly to point out the ordinary nature (by the Stripes’ standards, that is) of the group’s originals this time around.

A few months from now, the suits over at Warner Bros. may wonder why their hot new act hasn’t sold even 500,000 copies of its new album. But they shouldn’t blame the White Stripes, who have never written songs with the masses in mind. “Icky Thump” is as good a rock record as you’ll hear right now, but it isn’t “new” enough to attract mainstream audiences, and it isn’t “old” enough to satisfy the band’s loyal following.