If the White Stripes have any one overriding design philosophy on White Blood Cells, it’s keep them wanting more. And with the album’s biggest hit single, Fell In Love With a Girl, clocking in at just under 2 minutes, it certainly does just that. Shaking the record to its very core, the track is a kick in the face of the duo’s heavy garage rock with Jack White’s wavering, frantic vocals acting as our guide in the madness that is the White Stripes’ breakout hit. And that’s only track 4, the opening two tracks, Dead Leaves & the Dirty Ground and Hotel Yorba, set the template for the two extremes the album is playing with at all times, heavy garage rock and down-to-earth blues rock and folk rock. Hotel Yorba jangles along with a folk swagger that proves to be the perfect backing to Jack’s playful lyrics. A song like Little Room or Aluminum perfectly encapsulate the dirty grimey quality to the record that gives it real texture. Aluminum in particular is a standout moment of pure intense noise that stands as a highlight of the record’s latter half. Albeit, I can’t help but feeling like after that song, the album overall tapers off. Especially with two of the record’s longest tracks, I Can’t Wait and I Can Learn (albeit they hardly even reach three and a half minutes), being some of the least interesting on the record, and feeling like they belong more in the middle of the record. Regardless, ignoring a somewhat disappointing last quarter, the duo from Detroit bring it with their bluesy and dynamic style on tracks like I Think I Smell a Rat and the Union Forever, both of which have very wonky, but catchy, melodies to them that make them stick in your head. As a breakout album, it’s justifiably tight for the majority of the running time, and tracks like Fell In Love With a Girl and Hotel Yorba are unmistakable smashes.
Rating: 3.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment