Published on Aug 8, 2003
Like the class valedictorian, you can’t help but feel a bit of
resentment/jealousy to the White Stripes. Their inherent coolness
is unquestionable. They recorded their latest album,
Elephant for about $10,000. Jack and Meg White profess a
deep love for some of the coolest icons of country music: Loretta
Lynn and Dolly Parton. They’ve been basically exempt from the
backlash other ‘The’ bands, such as The Strokes and The Hives have
suffered. All the adoration makes you want to ask, “Are they really
that good?”
Well, if you’re looking for a reason to hate the band, you will
probably have to look elsewhere than
Elephant. Sure, it contains much of the art-deco pretension
of their earlier releases, such as
De Stijl and
White Blood Cells, but the album also contains some of the
loosest, bluesiest and flat-out rocking songs in the Stripes
catalog. Jack White’s infectious swagger in the seven-minute jam
fest, “Ball and Biscuit” is enough to shake most of the elitist
trappings the band occasionally succumbs to.
White Blood Cells was a surprise hit last year. However, a
big reason for that is because of their fashion sense and their
videos (most of the population see the White Stripes as “The Lego”
band from their landmark video, “Fell in Love With a Girl”). With
Elephant, the band could have buckled from their hype.
Instead, they actually took advantage of their artistic freedom and
experimented with lower guitar sounds, almost bordering on sounding
like a throbbing bass (see “Seven Nation Army”). Meg White even
refines her drumming skills to create a powerful whallop in most of
the tracks on
Elephant (let’s face it, for most of their three previous
albums, Meg White’s drumming was as subtle as a falling piano).
Meg White finally gets a chance to helm the lead vocals in the
creepy track, “In the Cold, Cold Night.” It is one of her many
highlights in
Elephant. Still, her shining moment is her hyper-drive
drumming in “You Have No Faith In Medicine.”
If you can consider them flaws, The White Stripes’ cleverness in
Elephant can sound contrived to some listeners. In the
closing track, “Well, It’s True That We Love Another,” Jack and Meg
playfully structure the song around their much-publicized
relationship. A self-help voice-over is played before the band rips
into “Little Acorns” is a nice novelty, but you find yourself
fast-forwarding it to the music.
Still, if you question the band’s sincerity, listen to their
incredible cover of Burt Bacharach’s “I Just Don’t Know What to Do
With Myself,” or Jack White’s heartfelt lyrics on “I Want to be The
Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart.” In the liner notes, the band
dedicated
Elephant to the death of the sweetheart. In this age of
irony, you will have to judge for yourself on whether or not the
band is being sincere. Personally, it’s far more fun just to
discard the pretension and let
Elephant rock you where it counts.