[Today: Jack & Meg White have a ball & biscuit...]
It’s easy to look at the music industry and see an obstacle course of challenges facing any artist in search of an audience. Pirated MP3s rob musicians of royalties. Labels are built to hit home runs, not nurture artists. My feet hurt. And so on. But one listen to an album like Elephant (or Exile On Main St, for that matter) is an ear-opening reminder that the music business isn’t about new-age marketing so much as it’s about riffs and hooks. The gigantic, throbbing guitar line that opens ‘Seven Nation Army’ (and this album) is a clarion call of world domination. You got riffs like that, you can lock your marketing people in the closet and throw away the key. And Jack White has bushels of riffs like that.
At the dawn of the 21st century, albums like this just weren’t supposed to get made anymore. Released in 2003, Elephant is a throwback in both form and function – an album of vintage styles recorded on early-60′s equipment. The distortion, fuzz and blues that form the backbone of this album are exactly what made it sound so fresh in a digital world. After the crunching, Led Zeppelican riffs of ‘Seven Nation Army’ we’re treated to dirty blues, psychedelic rock, tender balladry, and even a torch song from Meg. Retro in all the best ways, The White Stripes don’t simply mimic and pick over the musical past – they infuse it with their own particular brilliance, while playing with the energy of a punk band.
Jack White is one of the best guitarists of the modern era – a high-voltage bluesbreaker who lets loose a frenzy of hot licks every time he picks up the instrument. In one sentence of its original review of this record, Rolling Stone compared White to Lightnin’ Hopkins, Marc Bolan and Buzzcocks. Throw in the serious stomp implied by its title, and you’ve got a landmark album that sounds more timeless with each passing year.
Listen: Seven Nation Army
Listen: Ball & Biscuit
Listen: I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself
Tags: Buzzcocks, Elephant, Exile On Main St., Jack White, Led Zeppelin, Lightnin' Hopkins, Marc Bolan, Meg White, My feet hurt., Rolling Stone, The White Stripes
17 December 2009 at 12:50 pm |
“Ball & Biscuit” is one of my all-time fav extended jams. If I could be a rock star for one song, and one song only, I think this might be the tune I would choose. I’d want my ex-girlfriends to be in attendance, too, so that they’d suspect from the vague, aggressive lyrics that I was a more giving lover with other women than I was with them.
17 December 2009 at 1:53 pm |
Now my feet hurt.
17 December 2009 at 6:36 pm |
This was an interesting one for me. I wrote an almost complete draft of this in May of 2007, shortly after I started this blog, and then put it away to collect dust until a couple of days ago. The only thing remaining of the original draft is the second paragraph, which has been drastically re-written. It’s an interesting gauge of how my writing has changed in 2.5 years, and as close as I’ll ever come to collaborating with myself on a review. My feet hurt too…
31 December 2009 at 10:40 am |
Also, the song “Acetominophen” is screamingly funny. Er, I think that’s what it’s called.
1 January 2010 at 11:04 am |
[...] 6] The White Stripes | Elephant (2003) – At the dawn of the 21st century, albums like this just weren’t supposed to get made anymore. Elephant is a throwback in both form and function – an album of vintage styles recorded on early-60’s equipment. The distortion, fuzz and blues that form the backbone of this album are exactly what made it sound so fresh in a digital world. After the crunching, Led Zeppelican riffs of album-opener ‘Seven Nation Army’ we’re treated to dirty blues, psychedelic rock, tender balladry, and even a torch song from Meg. Retro in all the best ways, The White Stripes don’t simply mimic and pick over the musical past – they infuse it with their own particular brilliance, while playing with the energy of a punk band. [Read Full Review] [...]
2 April 2011 at 1:57 am |
This album means so much to me…. thank you for putting into words what I have always struggled to, and doing it so well!