The White Stripes were one of the bands that were caught up in the hype of the 2000s. However, unlike most of these bands, they were actually pretty decent. Before their breakthrough album, White Blood Cells, they already had two cracking albums. All it took for them to be propelled to success was Michel Gondry's lego video for the ridiculously catchy "Fell In Love With a Girl" and the sheer timing of it all: the magical year of 2001.
I got into The White Stripes through White Blood Cells. I'm not even going to lie and will flat out say that their third album was terrific. Sure the novelty of a two person band - a girl who couldn't play drums very well and a pasty white guy pretending he was black - and the fluffy story of a brother and sister (they were actually a divorced couple) bursting eardrums together was nice but to actually sit down and listen to this album, you could tell that Jack White had some soul in him. This was the first album that was cover-free (De Stijl, the other great White Stripes album, had covers by Son House and Blind Willie McTell) and showed that White had some chops and tunes in him.
Sold on White Blood Cells, I went out and got De Stijl. Again, another awesome album that had only come out the year before. It was a lot more raucous than their Big Album, but it was more of a punch to the face. It's still an album I highly regard to this day: it was an album of the band finding themselves, finding their bluesy niche, which made White Blood Cells possible.
Knowing that this band's second and third albums were already on my good list, I was of course excited for their fourth album, Elephant. It marked the band's major label debut and an album to prove themselves after the hype machine. Honestly, I feel like they did a good enough job but it was definitely a feeling of having to prove they're still good now that they have a major label backing them up. It's also the only album that made me stop listening to The White Stripes.
Perhaps that was the start of my "this band only had a few good albums" mindset. Mind you, I do not think this of every band, but I feel - at least in the 2000s - many bands only had a few good albums in them and might've stretched out their creativity too long. 2007's Icky Thump had a couple of good tunes but overall it was just not good. I file The White Stripes in the same category as The Strokes: bands that, at the time, had a lot of potential but are now seen as novelties.
I still listen to the shit out of De Stijl and White Blood Cells. Back in high school, I knew how to play White Blood Cells in it's entirety. I used to sit down and just play that album and probably piss off my neighbors.
Besides, this song will always and forever fucking rule:
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