White Stripes – Elephant

March 26, 2003

Before I get underway, caveats abound: I’m not that big on the White Stripes. I have all their releases, but I’m not someone who lauds them as a vanguard of some mystical new era. While I’ve liked a lot of their previous catalog, it also hits me as a bit fatiguing to listen to for long periods of time, and sometimes so evocative of other heavy blues that I’ll just flip it off and put on one of those records instead.

With all that out of the way, Elephant is pretty easily their best release yet. It kicks off with something off kilter, a bass (or possibly a guitar through an octave/EQ pedal), before settling into the White Stripes formula: Meg’s deliberate kick and snare with Jack’s ragged guitar work. The boasting swagger of “Seven Nation Army” bleeds right into the churn of “Black Math” which leads to some bizarre Queen like vocal choruses on “There’s No Home For You Here.” The first three tracks are vintage Stripes without sounding like carbon copies. Jack White’s virtuoso guitar work, steps up even further on Elephant, doing all parts rhythm and lead, effortlessly switching between the subtle and the monstrous.

The rest of the album rocks similarly, with just enough breakups to keep it from getting monotonous. A cover of Burt Bacharach’s “I Just Don’t Know Waht To Do With Myself” and a Meg White vocal solo “In The Cold, Cold Night,” don’t quite stand up with the rest of the album, but they provide a segue into the slightly more restrained middle section, before that album kicks back into overdrive with “Ball and Biscuit” and “The Hardest Button.” “Little Acorns” tries to provide another break, but it pretty much makes me hit the skip button every time. The album closes with another strong sequence, with rockers “The Air Near My Fingers,” the completely perfect “Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine” before finishing with a goof-off hoedown with Holly GoLightly, Jack and Meg alternating vocals.

If the Stripes weren’t really your bag before, Elephant may or may not swing your vote. It’s a logical progression of everything White, only improved. If you liked them before, Elephant will probably be your favorite album of the year, if not the decade.

Posted in From Blown Speakers