White Blood Cells

Then I listened to "Hotel Yorba" and haven't been able to get the bloody thing out of my head for weeks. This is an album charged with energy and passion; each song is loaded with either deep emotion or just raw love of what they're doing. The songs range from the gentle ballad of "The Same Boy You've Always Known" to the energetically throbbing "I Think I Smell A Rat". And - what a bonus on the music scene as it stands today - the Stripes' lyrics actually have some thought and truth behind them; a novelty rather than the norm these days, sadly. As I've already said, "Hotel Yorba" is disturbingly catchy... but then so are almost all the other songs on this album, particularly the introductory "Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground" and "Fell In Love With a Girl".

And all this musical quality, which really does advance the rock 'n' roll genre, with 3 instruments in total. A guitar, a drumkit and a keyboard. Produced on the ragged edge - they do their thing, and that's that; quite often you can hear the odd word or "Can you get me the-..." in the background recorded in the track itself, before the song has even finished. "Little Room" only has drums and Jack's vocals, yet it's one of the highlights of the album, lasting all of a minute and a half. It says a lot about the quality of this album that it's so thoroughly engrossing and engaging with such slipshod production values and often tragically short songs - in total it's only about 40 minutes long. In fact, my one complaint about this rough and ready piece of musical excellence is that it's too damned short! If it wasn't for the invention of the "Repeat All" button this would be much more of a concern... as it is, you can leave this disc on repeat for as long as possible; believe me, it's worth every minute.

Although it cannot quite maintain its momentum over the last few tracks, the first 12 contain everything you could possibly wish for, from the anti-capitalist anger of "The Union Forever", to feelgood tracks like "Hotel Yorba" and "Fell In Love With a Girl", the gentle whistfulness of "Going to be Friends" (which would not have been out of place on a Kingsbury Manx album) and the unashamed rock theatre of "Smell a Rat".

Above all this album is simply one of the most enjoyable and satisfying i have ever heard. If you have ever liked any song with drums, guitar and vocals in it then there will be something on this album you will enjoy.

From Detroit, Jack and Meg White (brother and sister) are...what to say? Amazing? Incredible? I think the one that sums them up the best is powerful. Ok, so the music is rough, Jack's voice breaks sometimes and Meg can be a little eratic in her drumming, but everytime i hear 'fell in love with a girl'(a funky song just 1 minute 40 secs long) I feel something explode inside me and a need to play it at least 6 times to feel fufilled!

Every track on this album is perfection, the closest to a dud is 'i think we're going to be friends' but even then it serves as a break from Meg's frantic drumming and lets Jack's voice calm down. My favourite song, apart from 'fell in love with a girl' has to be 'i can't wait'. Its beautiful, the guitar riff at the beginning is melancholy and filled with longing, with Jack's voice practically whispering 'Who do you think you're messing with girl?' trying desperatly to sound defiant. then the drums kick in and it turns into a shouty, 'god i hate you but i can't leave you alone' song interspersed (sorry about bad spelling!)with tenderness.

I can't possible say everything about this band that i want, everytime I hear them something wells up inside me and every time i listen to it, it sounds like the first time.

Feel no shame about buying this album a year after people raved about them, about jumping on the band wagon. Just buy it and feel better knowing that at least one band in the world has got it right.