Performer Notes
- The White Stripes: Jack White (vocals, guitar, piano); Megan White (drums, background vocals).
- Recorded at Easley-McCain Recording, Memphis, Tennessee in February 2001.
- In an age where rock is becoming progressively more slick and studio enhanced, it's quite refreshing to see a band like White Stripes come up from the underground and play raw, sloppy, and soulful rock & roll the way it was meant to be played--straight out of the garage. On the Stripes' third album WHITE BLOOD CELLS, their songwriting and playing has become more focused and slightly more accessible than on their earlier releases (1999's self titled debut and 2000's DE STIJL). This is evidenced by such selections as "The Same Boys You've Always Known" and "We're Going to be Friends." But White Stripes' earlier direction can still be detected on several cuts, most noticeably on the cut "Now Mary." With the release of WHITE BLOOD CELLS, White Stripes are getting closer and closer to perfecting and bringing their modern blues-rock craft and bringing it to the masses.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (7/19/01, p.50) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...Gothic garage punk strictly by the all the best and baddest rules....fusing inescapable, eerily eternal melodies with dirty-ass, brain-scrambling riffs recalling both the Kinks and the Melvins..."
Spin (1/03, p.70) - Ranked #1 on Spin's list of 2002's "Albums of the Year" - "...A jittery, lovably pretentious garage blues record....Unexpected rock stars who love Howlin' Wolf and peppermint candy in equal amounts..."
Q (1/03, p.69) - Included in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums Ever"
Q (9/01, p.122) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Their sonic ingenuity...enhances even the most basic garage-rock templates....curiously innocent..."
Uncut (9/01, p.100) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The most explosively entertaining new band to come out of America in recent memory..."
Magnet (12-1/02, p.57) - Included in Magnet's "20 Best Albums of 2001".
CMJ (7/2/01, p.4) - "...Irresitible....It's as if they take Beatlesque hooks and a snotty Stones rock 'tude, mashes them with the eardrum-bursting chugs of Sabbath, and then washes it all in a decidedly millenial indie-rock mood..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.64) - Ranked #28 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "[With] 16 irresistible three-minute frenzies..."
Mojo (Publisher) (1/02, p.69) - Ranked #15 in Mojo's "Best [40] Albums of 2001".
Mojo (Publisher) (9/01, p.93) - "...Irresistible..."
NME (Magazine) (12/29/01, p.59) - Ranked #3 in NME's 50 "Albums Of the Year 2001".
NME (Magazine) (7/7/01, p.34) - 8 out of 10 - "...Great songs, a great look and self-discipline, too..."
