The early 2000s was a time when the world vibrated to the sound of the low-fi country-blues-rock garage music of The White Stripes. They looked like nothing else, a super-sexy cool couple of stylish Detroiters, bedecked in an eccentric mix of black, white and red hats and clothes, knocking out catchy hits like there’s no tomorrow.
We first heard of when the smash hit Hotel Yorba barged into the charts, and stuck with them for the next cluster of albums, loving their energy and cheek.
In each podcast episode we talk through the artist’s history chronologically, picking our favourite tracks and ranking the albums as we go, so check that out if you want to know how we came to our decisions and why we picked the playlist tracks we did.
Our ranking and track picks are a compromise of our two different personal opinions, and of course we have to consider the Jeffrey Rulebook, it is also only a snapshot in time, so don’t take them too seriously! But do please comment below with your picks.
The The White Stripes Jeffrey Podcast playlist is also available here on Deezer.
In preparation for the podcast we (i.e. Gordon) read The White Stripes: 21st Century Blues by Dick Porter and Fell in Love With a Band: The Story of The White Stripes by Chris Handyside.
1999: The White Stripes
Our ranking: 6th
Their debut album is not great, and to be frank, it was a bit of a slog to get through.
It sets out their stall fairly clearly, they make no bones about it; they’re electric blues with just two instruments, but the problem is then that with so few moving parts available to them, it all sounds a bit samey. This makes it feel quite long, despite it being only 43 minutes, but when you’ve bashed through 17 similar songs, the lack of variety in style and instrumentation – and the (literally) homemade production – is all rather wearisome.
It would have been better as an EP.
Our picks: Broken Bricks and One More Cup of Coffee
We like all their album covers, but their debut probably just about holds the top spot:
2000: De Stijl
Our ranking: 5th
Their second album is a definite step forward whilst clinging to many of the same faults as their debut. There is a better balance of styles, and the songwriting is improving as the songs feel more developed and less like one idea thrashed out for a few minutes until they stop. This whole album is tighter and shorter, and the production sounds much better too.
All these incremental improvements add up to a much better album overall.
Our picks: I’m Bound to Pack it Up and Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise
2001: White Blood Cells
Our ranking: 4th
As the band’s popularity is growing steadily, they take a serious step forward into quite different territory with their third album. The songwriting is much stronger, there are some great catchy numbers (Hotel Yorba most obviously) and the production is improved again. For the first time, them being a foxy power duo starts to feel like a strength rather than a weakness.
This is also the first album where Jack White writes all the songs (on previous records they’d included a few cover versions).
Our picks: I Think I Smell a Rat and The Union Forever
2003: Elephant
Our ranking: 2nd
The big one with the mega global hit Seven Nation Army, the one where they briefly became the biggest band in the world. It is another step forward from White Blood Cells, and we see more gradual improvements in every department. It has a much more mature sound but despite all that, we’re still stuck with the essential samey sound and so it still feels a bit too long: losing ten minutes would improve the album, and we could start by binning the embarrassing final track.
Our picks: Seven Nation Army and I Want To Be The Boy Who Warms Your Mother’s Heart
2005: Get Behind Me Satan
Our ranking: Top!
And the winner is (party poppers at the ready), well the truth is that there’s not a lot between the top four, they’re all flawed but highly enjoyable … but for us, this one edged ahead of its sister albums. It has a good production sound and more variety of instrumentation including piano (percussive piano too, similar to Fiona Apple, which might be why John favoured this one).
There’s no duffers on this one except for 35 seconds of Passive Manipulation which is dreadful but mercifully short, so we’ll let it pass.
Our picks: Take Take Take and Blue Orchid
2007: Icky Thump
Our ranking: 3rd
Their final album is pretty good and shows how they might have developed if they’d stayed together. It is much more varied than their other albums, and much more polished – might they have continued to expand their palette and buff up the production? Maybe, but would that have made them just like everyone else? Maybe.
Maybe that’s why they decided to call it a day, having milked the concept for all it was worth.
The variety on this album means that it is the album we’d most enjoy the thought of listening to these days, and although it has some of The White Stripes’s best tracks, it also has some of the worst which means you have to pick and choose rather than approach it as a single beast.
Our picks: A Martyr for my Love for You and 300 M.P.H. Torrential Downpour Blues
The Jeffrey Music ranking of The White Stripes albums:
- Get Behind me Satan (2005)
- Elephant (2003)
- Icky Thump (2007)
- White Blood Cells (2001)
- De Stijl (2000)
- The White Stripes (1999)
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