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The
White Stripes - The White Stripes
[1] Jimmy
The Exploder
[2] Stop
Breaking Down
[3] The Big
3 Killed My Baby
[4] Suzy
Lee
[5] Sugar
Never Tasted So Good
[6] Wasting
My Time
[7] Cannon
[8] Astro
[9] Broken
Bricks
[10] When
I Hear My Name
[11] Do
[12] Screwdriver
[13] One
More Cup Of Coffee
[14] Little
People
[15] Slicker
Drips
[16] St.
James Infirmary Blues
[17] I Fought
Piranhas
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Less is
more; at least with The White Stripes it is - You might think
that a band with only two members would be struggling to produce
high quality music, and you'd be almost right. However, this is
supposed to be music stripped down to the bare essentials: a guitar,
drum-kit, and vocals combined to create catchy, and intricate
songs, while maintaining a minimalist retro feel.
From the
opening track "Jimmy The Exploder" you know straight
away that Jack White is an excellent guitarist (He almost sounds
like Hendrix. Yes, really). Meg on the other hand is not exactly
the best drummer in the world and often misses out beats, and
her drumming is often weak. Somehow this scrappy drumming fits
well with Jack's lo-fi guitar work and adds a lot of character
to the White Stripes' characteristic retro rock/blues sound.
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Jack White
has the ability to almost make his guitar sing, as if it were almost
a third member of the band. Some of his guitar work is absolutely
amazing, with an almost Hendrix-esque level of guitar mastery ranging
from vicious riffs to smooth blues-style slide guitar and everything
in-between, to produce a unique yet familiar sound. The
album is fantastic and no two songs sound the same: there are
hard rock guitar-heavy songs like "Jimmy The Exploder",
"Screwdriver" and "Broken Bricks"; blues-type
ballads (far better than it sounds) like "Suzy Lee"
and "One More Cup Of Coffee"; to stranger songs like
"St James Infirmary Blues" and "Little People".
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The only real problem
with this album is a lack of length in a lot of the songs - most are
under 3 minutes long, which is a bit disapointing really. But when the
songs are this good it's hard to let the faults put you off.
This is an excellent
album, with a few faults, but one that is worth every penny.
4 out of 5
T
Elshaw |
