Even for as mild of a White Stripes fan as myself, White Blood Cells is a pretty damned good record. Jack and Co. tinkered with the production style they had become accustomed to; turning the volume to 11 on the guitar while sometimes adding two to three layers of them to make the songs even louder. They also get Meg White to bang aimlessly on the drums a little harder than she had in the past. The album is abrasive, with a helluva lot of attitude. White Blood Cells also has the best collection of tracks the White Stripes have ever recorded, starting with one of my favorites of theirs, “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.”
“Well any man with a microphone Can tell you what he loves the most And you know why you love at all If you're thinking of the holy ghost”
“Hotel Yorba” follows with what has become the most used and simple three chord progression in pop history. But somehow Jack, with his attitude, his lyrics, and his voice, makes the whole thing sound wholly original.
One of the best records of the decade as so many have suggested? Perhaps by influence but certainly not by content for my money. As with all of the White Stripes records I take it in limited doses. But even though it tapers off similarly to the rest of their albums, Side A has a collection of tracks so fantastic it makes up for it. And as many complaints as I have for the elementary percussion and all the critical acclaim they’ve received over the years, I must admit I have infinite appreciation for what the White Stripes did by crafting White Blood Cells at a time when the likes of Kid Rock and Creed were the names associated with rock’n’roll.
What I don't understand is how the same argument isn't applied to the other half of his band. Sure, Meg White definitely struggles to play the drums with any sort of skill, but she isn't struggling to hone her craft, and she doesn't add much extra creativity in to the music Jack White creates. I'm not sure most of us would accept the same from a peer in most any other profession, artistically related or otherwise. This is pulled from wiki: "Meg White's minimalistic drumming style is a prominent part of the band's sound. Meg has never taken a lesson. [She] says her pre-show warm-up consists of 'whiskey and Red Bull.'" Being self-taught is great and all, if you actually try and teach yourself. Almost any one of us with just the slightest sense of rhythm could play the drum part to nearly any White Stripes song ever made, within a few minutes of trying.
I disliked the White Stripes for the longest time because of this attention I payed to the drumming; I couldn't get past it. Further fueling my disdain was all the critical appraisal they were receiving. Not only did I not understand how everyone could take a band with such bad drumming so seriously, I couldn't understand why everyone liked music with such simple and familiar song structures.
As the White Stripes have become further ingrained in to rock'n'roll history over the past decade, I've further tried to understand the phenomenon. After countless years and hours spending time with the likes of De Stijl, White Blood Cells, and Elephant I have warmed up to the them. Although I found the small bit of Jack White I got to know through ItMight Get Loud to be somewhat irritating, it was revealing to hear him talk about all that classic blues he loves so much. His intentions are to always invoke those simple but powerful emotions good blues artists invoke in a listener. On Jack's best tracks, I think he succeeds admirably in doing so, and that angry rock'n'roll attitude he wears so well can be contagious. While I still think it wouldn't hurt the White Stripes cause to have some improved percussion, I do understand how overly complex drumming would take away from what the White Stripes sound.
The best song for my money still resides on De Stijl. "Hello Operator" is a culmination of everything great about the White Stripes: bluesy guitar work, rock'n'roll solos, catchy lyrics sung with a lot of attitude and infectious inflection, and just enough percussion to add an additional element to Jack's songwriting:
There are a couple of other great tracks like the slide guitar driven "Death Letter" and the ballady "Sister, Do You Know My Name," but all the songs begin to blend together the deeper I get in to the album. I appreciate Jack White's simplistic and refined approach to music, even more so after seeing It Might Get Loud, but the very basic and all-too-familiar chord progressions and the overly-simplistic percussion make it so I lost interest quickly. White Stripes in small doses is quite enough for me. Although I do admit I misunderstood them somewhat at first, and I have grown to like a lot of Jack's tracks, I still think they are one of the most overrated bands of the past decade.
Release Date: July 3, 2001
