The White Stripes
White Blood Cells
2001
Merry Christmas everyone! Your gift today is a familiar one – another album from The White Stripes! While it may seem a bit much to feature three of the duo’s records on one list, it should be noted that I didn’t include their most popular and critically-praised effort, Elephant, or Steve and Ryan’s favorite, Get Behind Me Satan. In one decade this band has put out five albums, and each one has been fantastic. Add it up, and you have my winner for Greatest Artist of the Decade!
White Blood Cells is the record that first introduced me to Jack and Meg. After seeing their award-winning music video for the album’s lead single, “Fell in Love with a Girl,” I instantly became a first-class passenger on the group’s accelerating bandwagon. The song was catchy, but it also had an edge – specifically Jack White’s striking lo-fi vocal delivery. Once I purchased the record, I immediately knew this band would impact mainstream music for a very long time.
If there is one album on my countdown I wish I could turn into a Broadway musical, it would certainly be White Blood Cells. Each of these songs has a strong theatrical atmosphere, albeit in rather off-beat ways. “The Union Forever” is a dark, Quentin Tarantino-esque ballad where White digs into the deepest portals of his brain, unleashing all the anger from a broken relationship in one condensed cry: “It can’t be love / For there is no true love!” This probing only continues further into the record with stranger images. “I Think I Smell a Rat” finds White on a personal prowl to find the nearby rodent: “Walking down the street, carrying a baseball bat / Oh, I think I smell a rat!” Yet there are moments of relief, such as the quirky acoustic number “We’re Going to be Friends.” Sung from the perspective of little boy, this cute story I’ve always believed is Jack’s love song for Meg, as he repeats the line, “I can tell that we are gonna be friends.” Wouldn’t you want to see this play?! -P.W.
The third time a White Stripes album has made it onto Phil’s top 50 list and this time it’s their junior endeavor. While I’m disappointed my favorite, Get Behind Me Satan, didn’t get any love this is still an excellent band. Now that I’ve listened to all of the duo’s records I can now say with confidence that Jack and Meg can do no wrong. This is another excellent blues and garage rock album showing more signs of the more expansive eclecticism that they would explore in subsequent releases. - Ryan
White's emphasis on analog certainly paid off with "White Blood Cells". This album has a blistering guitar tone that's like nothing else. This list has made me listen to a lot of White Stripes material and while it's added to my respect of Jack White, it hasn't made much of a lasting impression on me. I like what he does and he certainly takes the craft seriously, I've just had my fill of bluesy revivalists - but if you want to hear one of the best, I'd certainly recommend these Stripes' records. - Steve
Alright everyone, so now you know who my pick is for Artist of the Decade! If you could nominate any band or artist for the award based on their work from the past ten years, who would you choose and why?
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