De Stijl

The Stripes don't sound like anybody else (no matter how hard we all try to draw parallels). Legions of other bands will be compared to them, not the other way around.

You're Pretty Good Looking let's Jack's guitar open throttle, not to mention setting his voice way back in your head where it won't go away. Sister, Truth, Pack It Up....all great tunes.....oh yeah, and what on earth possessed Meg for that rim solo on Hello Operator....that one won't go away either. There is way too much sound here for two people.....that other stuff you hear in the space in between is the sound of original rock lightning......and it's rare......there hasn't been a band like this one in 10 years. The only problem is somebody needs to help Jack with his lyrics.....house-couch-mouse......Jack....listen to some old Dylan or something, will ya?

Stripes make you realize that even if Green Day were the best of their era, this is how much better they could have been; this is how the Stones must have sounded at the Crawdaddy Club in 64; this is why all those hype-bands like the Hives & Vines will never last; this is nothing less than the start of the 3rd age of rock and roll. These guys have it.....the blinding future of rock may be in their hands.


What the fudge?   June 23, 2002
Wheelchair Assassin (The Great Concavity)
31 out of 41 found this review helpful

I don't even know where to start with this album. Is it blues-punk-garage-retro rock? There are lots of diverse elements here, but suffice to say that it somehow manages to take completely anachronistic sounds and make them sound fresh. Those oddly rustic guitars, the boyish vocals, the simple drumming, it all sounds out of place in this era, as if Jack and Meg White stayed under a rock for a quarter century and then came out and started making music. And then on track four, "Apple Blossom," they throw in a piano? What's going on here? Somehow, though, the album's stripped-down sound and lo-fi production just work. Jack White combines his acoustic guitar strumming with lots of bluesy licks and riffs, and Meg's insistent drumming propels the songs forward effectively. The vocals are another high point, as Jack comes out sounding like Mick Jagger on "You're Pretty Good Looking," and at other times sounds boyishly innocent. The album does start to slow down a little during the middle, but just then it comes back to life with hard-rocking numbers like "Let's Build a Home" and "Jumble, Jumble." Music made by two people, sounding like it was recorded in a garage, has no right to pack this much of a punch. But it does. The conviction the White Stripes bring to their music alone would be enough to give them a listen.


OMG I died and went to heaven!   March 3, 2002
.!!.
30 out of 35 found this review helpful

After buying White Blood Cells, I had decided to buy either this or The White Stripes. I chose this, because it was the only one of the two I could find. Oh my God how pleased am I that I did. This is the best album I've ever heard.
There's no word for this album really apart from Amazing. If you've got White Blood Cells, the third of the albums to come along you'll have some idea of what this band is like. Now take that idea, throw in a big bag of Detroit rock, blues guitar riffs, cheerful harmonica tunes and hillbilly vocals, and you have what can only be described as a joyous...well...mess, of music.
The first track, You're Pretty Good Looking, is fantastic, combining puppy love singing and simple crunchy guitar. Hello Operator introduces the afor-mentioned harmonica, whilst maintaining the great guitareering. From then on it's slower, much more blue, but no less brilliant. These tracks make you feel lazy, until track 10, when it throws once again the rock guitaring and crashy drums at you with Let's build a home. The next track follows its example, and then its back to blues. The last track, a cover of Your Southern Can Is Mine is great, just like the whole damn album.
Just buy it. Please.


Pretty damn good; garage-y, two-piece rock.   March 2, 2003
Shotgun Method (NY... No, not *that* NY)
20 out of 24 found this review helpful

Although White Blood Cells is Jack and Meg's commercial success, and Elephant is a very solid album, in my opinion De Stijl really captures what the White Stripes are about. It's much rawer than White Blood Cells or Elephant, but more tuneful than the debut, and is a very solid attempt at bluesy garage rock.

Well, for one thing De Stijl sounds very, very garagey. The production is gritty and honest, with almost no studio gloss present. The minimalist approach works wonders here.

Jack White is an excellent guitarist, and very proficient at the open-A, slide guitar blues of this album. His overpowering, rich guitar totally eclipses the need for a base player. On De Stijl, his vocals sound like that of a young Robert Plant. Although Meg is not the most competent drummer out there, she merely functions to keep time while Jack rips away on his guitar. Lyrics are simple yet often profound, with no pretension or angst rife among nu-metal bands these days.

Highlights include You're Pretty Good Looking (For A Girl), Hello Operator (got to love Meg's "solo"), Apple Blossom, I'm Bound To Pack It Up, Death Letter (my favorite), Truth Doesn't Make A Noise, and the hard rockers Let's Build A Home and Jumble Jumble. If there's a throwaway track, it's probably the weak cover of Your Southern Can Is Mine--way too much country for my liking.

This is the best White Stripes release, and captures everything good about this duo without overproduction or gimmicks. Recommended.


A Vegetable Donkey gone to heaven.   December 8, 2001
Asher Hayden (KC MO)
17 out of 27 found this review helpful

PRetend you are a donkey who really likes vegetables. Well,
you have found your band. This band's sound is reminiscent of a small area filled with jimmy page. Led zepplin meets britney spears and is then promptly eaten by Lou Reed and you have The White Stripes. But seriously, listening to the White Stripes falls somewhere in between eating a lot of Reese's Pieces and kicking a soccer ball. I mean it is THAT good. Please, even if you are Russian, buy this cd and listen to it.