Disc 126 is...White Blood Cells
Artist: The White StripesYear of Release: 2002
What’s Up With The Cover?: Jack and Meg White are accosted by five shadows. Jack looks disturbed; Meg looks bemused.
How I Came To Know It: I heard the song "Seven Nation Army" back when "Elephant" came out in 2003. That got me hooked on the White Stripes, but I probably didn't get "White Blood Cells" - the preceding album - until about 2004.
How It Stacks Up: I have six White Stripes albums, which I think is all of them, although I haven't checked in a while. I really like "White Blood Cells" but I'm not sure it's my favourite. I'll say 2nd or 3rd depending on how I'm feeling about "De Stijl" at the time.
Rating: 4 stars
The White Stripes are a band that I find people either really like, or really don't like. Me - I really like them. I'm amazed at the heavy rock sound they get out of principally just two instruments - guitar and drum.
This album starts with a bang, with the tap of drumsticks and the screech of a little feedback before it launches into a Sabbath-like guitar riff. Jack White's vocal cuts in:
"Dead leaves and the dirty ground
when I know you're not around."
As songs that set the mood of an album, "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" is high on my list.
As counterpoint to rock-it-out tracks like "Dead Leaves...", "White Blood Cells" also includes more quietly introspective tracks about childhood like "We're Going To Be Friends." which provide a nice counterpoint to the driving guitar, and keep your ear primed for each new track.
With the rise of single downloads, the art of album construction has suffered a little in recent years. The White Stripes show that it can still be done, and done well.
A big part of this success must also go to Jack White's production. He is truly skilled at getting maximum sound out of the simplest arrangements. He also manages to make the relatively average drum playing of Meg sound good. He adds to this a deliberately sloppy rock guitar and a lasciviously classic rock voice, blending it all together into some of the purest rock and roll to be made in some time.
"White Blood Cells" has sixteen tracks - usually cause enough for me to see red. However, the longest track is only 3:39 (ironically, it is track 12's "I Can't Wait"). The end result is a respectable 40 minutes of playing time. The first five or six tracks are simply awesome. As the album progresses, there are a few weaker songs that make an appearance, but even these are few in number, and are often over in under three minutes.
In fact, one of my favourites on this album, "Little Room" is only fifty seconds long - a short, but thoughtful track about the nature of success, and how hard it is to hold onto what it is that got you there in the first place:
"well you're in your little room
and you're working on something good
but if it's really good
you're gonna need a bigger room
and when you're in a bigger room
you might not know what to do
you might have to think of
how you got started
sitting in your little room."
This song to me, pretty much sums up how the White Stripes approach music. Simple songs, amplified out of all ho, but appealing back to the deepest roots of rock that will always be the wellspring of what makes this genre of music great.
Best tracks: Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, Hotel Yorba, I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman, Expecting, Little Room, Offend In Every Way, This Protector.
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