 Latest
Album Reviews |
|
| Lightspeed Champion - Falling Off The Lavender Bridge | | "not every band that NME champions has to be shite" (More) |
| | Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster... | | "It can’t be denied that Hold On Now, Youngster is fun" (More) |
| | British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music? | | "Not all British bands with guitars sound the same" (More) |
| | The Aliens - Astronomy For Dogs | | "Instead of listing all the influences just go to wikipedia and search for popular musical styles" (More) |
| | John Cale - Circus Live | | "The reason for the album is that Cale had found a band that could interpret his songs in a new and interesting way?" (More) |
| Latest Gig Reviews |
|
| Radiohead, Bat For Lashes, MGMT | | "29th June 2008 - LCCC, Manchester" (More) |
| | Half Man Half Biscuit | | "17th April 2008 - Coronation Hall, Ulverston, Cumbria" (More) |
| | Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark | | "13th May 2007 - Olympia Theater, Dublin" (More) |
| | Black Rebel Motorcycle Club | | "17th April 2007 - Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall" (More) |
| | Paul Weller, The Charlatans, Ian Brown, Echo and the Bunnyman, Noel Gallagher | | "30th March 2007 - MEN Arena Manchester" (More) | |
| |
 |
| |
 The White Stripes interested me before I’d even heard their music.
I won’t pretend that I’d been a fan from before they’d even released their first album, or that I even knew that they existed then. But when I read in the music press about live dates in this country towards the end of 2001 and how much of a buzz was building around them I became intrigued.
It was unusual enough to a boy raised on meat and potatoes 4/5 piece indie rock that the White Stripes consisted of but two people, yet tales spoke of how loud they were and that this sound filled even the biggest venue. When I later saw them at Reading festival in 2002 I saw this to be true. They were on the main stage ahead of the Dandy Warhols and the contrast was striking; Jack and Meg White made an unholy racket, whereas the more numerous Warhols sounded like a wet kitten fart.
There was also all that fuss about whether they were brother and sister or husband and wife. This is rather passé now but back then it gave them an air of mystery. There were other things that made me want to check them out, such as the red and white colour scheme and the love of antiquated recording equipment. It seemed different.
So I picked up White Blood Cells and liked what I heard. It wasn’t a world beater but had a beguiling enough mix of energy, oddness and pop sensibility for me to invest in their back catalogue and become a fan.
I saw them live a couple more times and it’s been written many times before about their qualities as a live outfit; the palpable sexual tension between Jack and Meg (thank God they’re not brother and sister), the ability to sound like a blues jam yet also remain convincingly tight at the same time, and their obvious skill in making an exciting racket.
The release of the single Seven Nation Army remains the career highpoint of the band. The twisted pop majesty of the single raised the expectations of many of us that the upcoming album Elephant would be a classic. It wasn’t and the main frustration of it is that at the time they had a classic album in them, yet a couple of Jack White’s decisions ensured that Elephant wouldn’t be it.
It is undoubtedly admirable that a popular band in this century would record their album over the space of a week and on equipment from a distant time, yet large parts of Elephant feel rushed and barely formed. Yeah, parts of White Blood Cells were the same but it seemed even more prevalent here and somehow less excusable. I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself and The Hardest Button To Button were both released as singles yet both of them are uninspired, limp and ultimately rather tuneless.
Elephant had a sprinkle of most things, with a bit of their trademark dirty guitar blues, a splash of country music and a soupcon of seventies rock. What Jack White missed out was melody and whereas guitar histrionics and energy can cover this up in the live arena, on record it just sounded like one very long demo session.
 Get Behind Me Satan was more of the same, lots of riffs, some half-baked ideas yet little in the way of a discernible tune. The less said about songs like My Doorbell the better.
It was at about this time that something else started to bother me about The White Stripes, namely Jack White’s interviews. Whether prattling on about the lack of manners in modern society, defending his attempts to rearrange the face of the singer from the Von Bondies, or talking about his wish to make an advert for Coca-Cola, he came across as staggeringly serious. This admittedly could be an unease with interviews but his haughty manner on virtually any subject led me to believe that here was someone who believed everything he said, wrote or played was the ‘only way’ to do things. And this limited musical palette has ultimately led to The White Stripes becoming stagnant. Elephant and Get Behind Me Satan don’t show a band making strides towards somewhere new and fresh, they show a band treading the same path again and again.
It was hoped that The Raconteurs could be different, that Brendan Benson could somehow free Jack White from the rut he’s ended up in. Results have been mixed to say the least and having this other creative outlet where he isn’t the sole songwriter will, if anything, ensure that The White Stripes keep on producing the same old guitar blues. The Raconteurs are Jack White’s outlet for limited experimentation, so why would he need to change anything with his day job.
Icky Thump backs up this last statement; if Elephant and Get Behind Me Satan made me question whether I actually like the band that much, Icky Thump made me believe that quality singles like Fell In Love With A Girl may have been a fluke. Whereas Seven Nation Army was a creative peak, Icky Thump is their nadir.
Icky Thump also contains one of the most jaw-droppingly ill-advised single choices in recent years in Conquest. The thing sounds like the theme tune for a TV series set in the wild west, cancelled after one episode in 1970. It is amazing in its awfulness.
So, even though I can’t decide if the early highpoints were a fluke, or if the band still has a great album in them but Jack White lacks the will to make it, both lead to the same conclusion: The White Stripes are a bit poo.
Glenn (April 2008)
Get Behind Me Satan (album)
Blackpool, November 2005 (gig)
Blackpool, November 2005 (gig - second opinion)
|
|