360 records from 2000: 52. White stripes: De stijl

52. White stripes: De stijl

Country: US
Artist: Duo
Career: recording since 1999, 2nd album
Language: English
Genre: Garage rock

There’s no denying Jack White did his part in shaping rock music for the ‘00s, but apart from a couple of basement jams on his football riff with my garage band, it passed me by. And so, this is my first White Stripes record. After all the hype and backlash etc., I like it a whole lot as an idiosyncratic goofball garage rock record.
Jack White knows his rock mythology. You get a perfectly sequenced, two sided vinyl record. On side A he courts the listener, inviting you in with some basic pop moves and heavy hitting slide guitar rock (there’s a lot of blues in there, but to call it blues-rock would do it a disservice). Side B is moodier, crankier, snarlier. It’s the classic garage rock contradiction played out on two sides of a record – inviting you in, then wanting to be left alone. It’s very effective.
If anything the White Stripes are very upfront about their flaws, Jack’s yelping voice like a cat in heat, Meg’s basic drumming skills (she’s really getting to know each part of the drum set as the record goes along – ‘oh, what’s this here?’), the underdeveloped songs. Instead of covering up this, they do all they can to draw attention to it. And you know, I don’t want to be all profound about it, but that kind of flawed ugliness is part and parcel of popular music and we get far too little of it. I suppose that’s what Jack White would say as well, and I think he’s right. It makes you feel good about the band, and cheering them on as they overcome their innate untalentedness (that’s not a word, right?) by sheer force of will. That’s what makes it garage rock, not the volume or the riffs.
When the record’s playing you don’t worry about its quality, it feels good. Afterwards the doubts start in (‘yeah, but the songs are kinda slight’…). But maybe the same is true about 50’s rock’n’roll: it wasn’t built to last, and maybe that’s exactly why it lasted.

At its best: You’re pretty good looking (for a girl), Little bird, Apple blossom, Truth doesn’t make a noise, Why can’t you be nicer to me?