Happy Canada Day! A year ago today
I was cleaning my house and reviewing a Mae Moore album. Today is the White
Stripes and no house cleaning, thank you very much. Instead I am looking
forward to a lazy day with Sheila.
Disc 753 is….De Stijl
Artist: The White
Stripes
Year of Release: originally 2000 and
then re-released in 2002, presumably when people started to realize ‘hey, this
band is pretty good!’
What’s up with the Cover? “De Stijl” is a reference to a
Dutch art movement from the first half of the 20th century, and the
cover is an example of it. “De Stijl” is the kind of art that is OK in a
gallery but that I’d never want in my home.
Meg
White’s shoes are also something I would also never want in my home. I have
previously guested on Sheila’s fashion blog, picking “shoes my husband hates.” The monstrosities that Meg is wearing would certainly qualify.
How I Came To Know It: No, I was not there from the
beginning. I got into the White Stripes with the rest of the crowd in 2003 with
the success of “Elephant.” “De Stijl” was just me drilling into their back
catalogue.
How It Stacks Up: I have six White Stripes albums
and “De Stijl” is one of the best. It is really tied with “Elephant” for first
place, but if you make me pick I’m going to go with “De Stijl” at number one.
Ratings: 4 stars but very close to 5
“De Stijl” answers the question “what would happen
if a modern rock act skipped over the Rolling Stones and went straight back to
thirties blues?”
With this record the White Stripes have rediscovered
that dirty, wretched, yet ever-so-tender sound of artists like Robert Johnson
and Son House and fused it with modern rock and folk concepts. The softer sides
of this album definitely have a Rolling Stones pop quality to them, such as the
English schoolboy crush quality of “Sister,
Do You Know My Name?” Even on these softer songs the guitar has a tortured
cry that screams Great Depression much louder than British Invasion.
That tortured guitar is Jack White’s signature
sound. He has always been able to draw magic out of the guitar, but “De Stijl” features
some of his best work. On “Death Letter”
he pumps power and distortion into the song well beyond anything the Son House original
could accomplish, without ever losing the core of the blues in every note.
On “I’m Bound
to Pack it Up” White shows his softer side with some soft strumming that
would be at home on a sixties folk record. Songs like this one show that the
White Stripes are keen music historians, willing to draw from the rich
tradition of rock and roll as well as its progenitors.
Slow or fast, folksy reverie or blues assault, “De
Stijl” always feels suffused with energy. These songs ride the emotional edge, threatening
at every moment to overwhelm the performers and descend into random screaming
or sobbing. Instead they hold tenuously close to disaster, like a motorcycle
finding the absolute edge of every turn on a mountain highway. You don’t create
greatness without riding close to that edge, and the White Stripes show they’re
willing to risk it.
The album has thirteen songs but it is all over in less
than 40 minutes, leaving you wanting more. My only quibble is the little kid
reciting a poem at the front end of “Let’s
Build a Home” but it is short lived and followed by a pretty cool track.
“De Stijl” is one of those albums that is going to
age well through the decades. The musical concepts Jack White is playing with
are timeless, but subtly infused with new ways to approach and interpret them.
Just as important, the energy he and Meg dedicate to every song makes it sound
fresh every time you hear it.
Best
tracks: You’re
Pretty Good Looking (For a Girl), Hello Operator, I’m Bound to Pack it Up,
Death Letter, Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise, Jumble Jumble, Why Can’t You Be Nicer
to Me?, Your Southern Can is Mine
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