FEATURE:
Expecting
The White Stripes' White Blood Cells at Twenty
___________
I am excited looking…
PHOTO CREDIT: Third Man Records
ahead to 3rd July. That is the date The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells turns twenty. The third studio album from Jack and Meg White, it is one of the earliest albums of theirs I remembering hearing in full. In terms of direction and sound, the duo moved away from Blues-Rock and embraced Rock more. Whilst The White Stripes were never ultra-modern (which was part of their appeal), they shifted their focus to the sounds of the 1960s and 1970s. I love how eclectic and accomplished White Blood Cells is. As is fitting with the duo, the recording of the album was pretty quick:
“The band rehearsed for one week and began recording at Easley-McCain Recording, in Memphis, Tennessee in February 2001. Meg White was initially hesitant to commence immediate recording, as she thought the songs were "too new." The album was recorded in less than four days, to try to keep it "as unorganized as possible," according to Jack. The record's quick production was intentional in order to get "a real tense" feeling, as well as capture the band's energy. The record was "rushed" and a final day was saved for mixing and mastering the record; this was the first White Stripes album to be mastered in the studio. It was the first time for the band recording in a 24-track recording studio, and Jack White asked recording engineer Stuart Sikes more than once "not to make it sound too good”.
Although there the twentieth anniversary is not for a while, some exciting news broke last week that really caught my eye. Louder explain more:
“The White Stripes have announced they will be releasing a companion album to their seminal 2001 album White Blood Cells, in celebration of its 20th anniversary. Titled White Blood Cells XX, the album will host 13 previously unreleased songs as well as live recordings, and is to be released via Jack White’s Third Man Records Vault subscription service.
The release will also include an hour-long DVD containing footage of the new album’s recording process, and a booklet of rare artwork, including posters, flyers, never-before-seen photographs and extras.
Songs featured on the record include demo versions of Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, early mixes of The Union Forever, a full-band studio rendition of That’s Where It’s At, alternate takes of Fell in Love With a Girl, acoustic versions of tracks that didn’t make the original cut and more.
To get a copy of White Blood Cells XX, you can subscribe to Third Man Records up until April 30”.
It does seem like The White Stripes put out White Blood Cells twenty years ago! I think the album still sounds amazing. I will try and grab a copy of the new release, as I think that the extra material will be revealing and a real bonus! I wonder whether there will be a twentieth anniversary edition for Elephant’s twentieth in 2023.
I think Jack and Meg really hit a high on their third album. Their eponymous album of 1999 is great. De Stijl of 2000 was another step forward but, when it came to their 2001 release, they hit another gear altogether! It is no surprise that White Blood Cells received such praise. This is what Pitchfork wrote in their review:
“Indeed, many of the songs admit that the love is lost. On "The Union Forever," Jack White mourns, "It can't be love/ Because there is no love." The song is a riff on Citizen Kane, including a strange breakdown with sampled dialogue from the film. Here, the White Stripes are the most experimental they get, which is to say "not very," though the song reminds me of the ragged power of Royal Trux without the pointless artiness. Certainly, it would be nice to hear the White Stripes take this music in a new direction, but this band is all about the songs, and the songs are good enough to stand alone, sans-flashy effects and tape editing.
"The Same Boy You've Always Known" is another high point. For a ballad, it rocks harder than most bands' hard-rockers, yet it wrenches in its emotional impact. Jack White repeats certain key lines, straining his voice to impart meaning and feeling. Again, the state of the relationship in question is uncertain. The song ends uncommitted and terribly sad with, "If there's anything good about me/ I'm the only one who knows." How many bands have failed with entire albums of moroseness to only express the alienation of those two lines?
The closest thing to a dud on this record is "We're Going to Be Friends," a gentle, nostalgic ditty of innocent love and childhood. It's a little too pleasant, lacking any of the fear and confusion of those pre-double-digit years, but its softness gives the record's midpoint some time to inhale before another six exhalations of fire.
Finally, at the close of the album, Jack sits alone at the piano for "This Protector." Though its message is vague, there are implications of religion and loss: "You thought you heard a sound/ There's no one else around/ 300 people out in West Virginia/ Have no idea of all these thoughts that lie within you/ But now... now... now, now, now, NOW!" Now what? It's the floating resonance of the moment, the intensity of the feeling, that gives these words meaning.
White Blood Cells doesn't veer far from the formula of past White Stripes records; all are tense, sparse and jagged. But it's here that they've finally come into their own, where Jack and Meg White finally seem not only comfortable with the path they've chosen, but practiced, precise and able to convey the deepest sentiment in a single bound. It's hard to know at this point in the game where they'll head from here, but what matters is right now. And right now, I want to listen to this album again”.
White Blood Cells resonated back in 2001. In the years since, it has gained a huge reputation. When it comes to the accolades and honours critics have given White Blood Cells, it makes for very impressive reading:
“The album was ranked on many "best of 2001" year-end lists, including being ranked among Blender, Rolling Stone, Mojo, and Kerrang!'s top 20, NME, Pitchfork, and The Village Voice's top 10. Spin called White Blood Cells the best album of 2001. In 2003, the record was chosen as number 20 on NME's Top 100 Albums of All Time. In 2005, Spin placed it at number 57 in its list of the 100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005, while Stylus included it at number 14 in its list of the Top 50 Albums of 2000–2005. In 2006, Mojo featured it at number 28 in its list of 100 Modern Classics, 1993–2006.
As the 2000s drew to a close, White Blood Cells was included on several publications' lists of best of the decade. The A.V. Club ranked it as the number one best album of the decade in its Top 50 Albums of the 2000s list. British music magazine Uncut also ranked the record as the best album of the 2000s in its 2009 list Top 150 Albums of the 2000s. Billboard placed the record at number eleven on its Top 20 Albums of the 2000s, while Rolling Stone included it just behind the White Stripes' follow-up, Elephant, at number 20 on its Top 100 Albums of the 2000s. NME featured the album at number 19 on its Top 100 Albums of the 2000s list, and Pitchfork's Top 200 Albums of the 2000s included it as number 12. Several other music publications, including Consequence of Sound, The Daily Californian, Glide, and Under the Radar featured White Blood Cells within the top 30 greatest records of the 2000s. The record is included in both The Guardian's "1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die" and the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”.
Ahead of the twentieth anniversary of one of the best albums of the first decade of the 2000s, I would encourage people to go and seek out White Blood Cells XX. If you cannot then get the original album. Twenty years after its release and The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells remains…
A simply phenomenal album.