 De
Stijl |
 Elephant |
 Get
Behind Me Satan |
 Icky
Thump |
 The
White Stripes
Laid bare of all pretention, this album
is a straightforward, raw foot-stomping preview of a career
to come. Part Yeah Yeah Yeahs
(whose Karen O came around several years after this album),
part Jon Spencer
Blues Explosion and a whole mess of other ancient and up
and comers who followed in their wake like The
Black Keys (who are actually much more traditional in their
blues approach). And maybe that’s what made this debut so shocking
and exciting at the time, as The White Stripes spurned any exact
tradition, combining garage rock and blues and backwoods shrieking
into a stew of raw emotion and what felt like some high-voiced,
high-spirited redneck freak out. He does dial it back on a few
songs (shit, there are 17 to choose from!) to show his “sensitive”
side but usually jumps right back into the raucous muffled guitar
crunch, echoey vocals and wind-up monkey drumming on what sounds
like the kit you get an eight-year-old at a garage sale. These
songs establish tons of attitude and personality, but fail just
a bit on the songwriting front in terms of distinguishing one
song from the next and really laying down sweet hooks. That
refinement, of course, would come in spades on later albums… |
 White
Blood Cells |
Musical Connections:
The Raconteurs
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