Ep. 6 | The White Stripes - Elephant

Beyond The Beat

Two opposing elements form the framework of the White Stripes, it's what makes them unique, strange, and so interesting. Jack and Meg White shroud themselves with mystery in their personal lives and they embrace cheap gimmicks such as a colour code, but the music they play harkens back to old Mississippi Blues from the 1930's with a Iggy and The Stooges 70's garage rock twist. The White Stripes are that simple in their music, and that complicated and mysterious with everything else. It’s easy to point to their 2003 release of Elephant as the White Stripes best work because it has their biggest hit, Seven Nation Army on it, but the album is much more than that. Elephant saw a maturity in the band and the songwriting, more than the minimalistic rock sound of White Blood Cells, and more than the polish pop twist to their blues rock sound on De Stijl and their debut self-titled album. Who knew blues-tinged rock & roll scaled back to its most essential elements — one guitar, a simple drum kit and sneering vocals, could top the charts in the early 2000's. But as Jack says, "The whole point of the White Stripes is the liberation of limiting yourself." The limitation of being a two piece rock band and analog recording in a pro-tools world was against the grain and off the beaten path. But Jack and Meg never took the easy route, and that’s why they and their works like Elephant will be in the rock pantheon with their heroes.