The White Stripes
White Blood Cells
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NATN Recommended
The White Stripes
White Blood Cells
Sympathy For The Record Industry, 2001
RiYL: John Lee Hooker, The Strokes, Jack Logan |
If we've learned anything from '90s rock, it's that if every magazine and UK tabloid is buzzing about how some cool new band's album is going to change the face of rock, the band is in all likelihood a cheap ripoff artist or future one-hit wonder, and the hairs of the moustache on the face of rock will barely feel their passing breeze. Right?
Enter 2001, and a one-two punch refuting this clause: first hype-babies the Strokes turn out to actually be good, and then I finally succumb to the media harassment and buy the White Stripes' third album, White Blood Cells. And I just can't get any of these songs out of my head. The music calls to me through its classically tacky red-and-white packaging, forcing me to pop it in the CD player again and again. Aaaaa!
This is just one of the most dynamic rock records I can remember hearing from a duo (!). Who cares if Meg and Jack White are brother and sister, or ex-husband and wife, or third cousins once removed -- they rock hard with minimal tools: Meg's drum set (think of a muscle-bound Mo Tucker one minute, a sensitive Charlie Watts the next), and Jack's abrasive guitar slashing and addictve voice. Jack's formidable songwriting talent melds from these a dirty cross-section of rock history, from manic garage rock ("Fell In Love With A Girl") to count-off hoedowns ("Hotel Yorba"), sinister, plodding metal ("The Union Forever"), soaring hard pop ("Same Boy You've Always Known"), childhood-reminiscing acoustic ditties ("We're Going To Be Friends"), and howling primitive singalong stomps ("Little Room").
Jack's lyrics are incisively delivered, even when their meaning may be obscured or, dare I say, insignificant. Whether he's declaring "If you can hear a piano fall, you can hear me coming down the hall" or "Your mouth said this never / but your fingers have told me that your head is so clever," he spits it with such quivering vehemence that you just gotta take it to heart. Meanwhile, Meg sets the right mood for each tune, just as comfortable slipping into a peppy two-step shuffle as she is deftly manipulating the rawk tension in opener "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground."
Sixteen songs in all populate White Blood Cells, and nary a one doesn't have something to contribute to the whole. So strangely enough, the British press is right about something! Specifically, that the White Stripes are a great rock and roll band, and White Blood Cells a suitable coming-out party.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.