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Rating: Hello everyone, this is the first original album I've ever bought, so you can understand my need to review it. How can you not review the first album, when you have the chance? You can't indeed... moreover, let me tell you, this is a distinguished album, compact and lively like never before.
So, for those who don't know the aforementioned White Stripes, know that they are composed of two charming individuals, a guy named Jack White and a girl named Meg also White, who alone, sporadically helped by someone else outside the band (meaning the two of them), have the audacity to play rock, garage-rock, and blues-rock, even dabbling in country, and they do it very well.
When I bought this CD I was about 14 years old and understood even less about music than I do now, but I remember that it was love at first sight: anesthetized by the video for Seven Nation Army, sporadically aired on MTV (too sporadically, I would spend entire hours in front of MTV waiting for it to play), my head was filled only with that bass riff, those very psychedelic red images permeated with elephants and walking skeletons, and to top it off, an imperious voice commanded me to immediately buy that album... those were the days. I knew the Stripes only for that song, so I was utterly unprepared for what was in the album, and in fact, at first, the disappointment was atrocious. I was even ashamed of having bought it, and it took several months and sporadic listens to the whole CD to finally grasp its beauty. Now I like the album, and quite a lot: it's an album of somewhat minimal rock, but highly inspired. Indeed, these two alone, Jack on guitar and Meg on drums, are perfectly capable of composing music and performing it in a very lively and communicative way, putting ideas and arrangements first, and only secondarily technicalities and various frills.
From the first track, Seven Nation Army, it's clear that we're in front of a quality work, with that bass riff that grabs you from behind and is already a classic, but to focus only on that song would not do justice to this album, which continues excellently with Black Math, a wonderful and devilishly energetic piece that makes you want to jump on the couch and shake your head up and down violently. With the next track, There's No Home for You Here, things calm down a bit, and it smoothly transitions to the next and almost connected I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself, structurally tied to a more classic rock, before flowing into In the Cold Cold Night, a very sensual blues track, sung by Meg and immediately catchy. The next track is a little gem whose only flaw is that I'll have to write its name (which is lengthy), and it's I Want to Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother's Heart, one of my favorites of theirs, also because of the warmth transferred by the folk guitar at one point in the song.
To avoid boring you excessively, I would like to mention two other songs: Ball and Biscuit, a splendid, lengthy blues track and another gem of the album, and the extremely intense Little Acorns, which is somewhat the synthesis of what I expected when I bought the album.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Seven Nation Army (03:52)
I'm going to fight 'em off
A seven nation army couldn't hold me back
They're gonna rip it off
Taking their time right behind my back
And I'm talking to myself at night
Because I can't forget
Back and forth through my mind
Behind a cigarette
And a message coming from my eyes says leave it alone
Don't want to hear about it
Every single one's got a story to tell
Everyone knows about it
From the Queen of England to the hounds of Hell
And if I catch you coming back my way
I'm going to serve it to you
And that ain't what you want to hear
But that's what I'll do
And a feeling coming from my bones says find a home
I'm going to Wichita
Far from this opera, forever more
I'm going to work the straw
Make the sweat drip out of every pore
And I'm bleeding and I'm bleeding and I'm bleeding
Right before my Lord
All the words are going to bleed from me
And I will sing no more
And the stains coming from my blood tell me go back home
02 Black Math (03:04)
Oh, don't you think that I'm bound to react now?
Well, My fingers definitely turning to black now
yeeah
Maybe I'll put my love on ice
And teach myself, maybe that'll be nice, yeaah
My books are sitting at the top of the stack now
Well, The longer words are really breaking my back now
yeaah
Maybe I'll learn to understand,
Drawing a square with a pencil in hand, yeah
ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ahh, ahhh
Mathematically turning the page
Unequivocally showing my age
I'm practically center stage
Undeniably earning your wage
Well, maybe I'll put my love on ice
Teach myself, maybe that'll be nice, yeeaah
Listen master can you answer a question?
Is it the fingers, or the brain that you're teaching the lesson?
Oh, I can't tell you how proud I am
Writing down things I don't understand
Well, maybe I'll put my love on ice
And teach myself, maybe that'll be nice, yeeaah
yeeeah, yeeeah, yeeeah
05 In the Cold, Cold Night (02:58)
I saw you standing in the corner
On the edge of a burning light
I saw you standing in the corner
Come to me again, in the cold, cold night
In the cold, cold night
You make me feel a little older
Like a full grown woman might
But when you're gone I grow colder
Come to me again in the cold, cold night
In the cold, cold night
I see you walking by my front door
I hear the creaking of the kitchen floor
I don't care what other people say
I'm going to love you, anyway
Come to me again in the cold, cold night
In the cold, cold night
I can't stand it any longer
I need the fuel to make my fire bright
So don't fight it any longer
Come to me again, in the cold, cold night
In the cold, cold night
And I know that you feel it too
When my skin turns into glue
You will know that it's warm inside
And you'll come run to me
In the cold, cold night
In the cold, cold night
In the cold, cold night
In the cold, cold night
07 You've Got Her in Your Pocket (03:40)
You've got her in your pocket
And there's no way out now
Put it in the safe and lock it
'cause it's at home sweet home
Nobody ever told you that it was the wrong way
To trick a woman, make her feel she did it her way
And you'll be there if she ever feels blue
And you'll be there when she finds someone new
What to do
Well you know
You keep her in your pocket
Where there's no way out now
Put it in a safe and lock it
'cause it's home sweet home
The smile on your face
made her think she had the right one
Then she thought she was sure
By the way you two could have fun
But now she might leave
Like she's threatened before
Grab hold of her fast
Before her feet leave the floor
And she's out the door
'cause you want
To keep you in my pocket
Where there's no way out now
Put it in a safe and lock it
'cause it's home sweet home
And in your own mind
You know you're lucky just to know her
And in the beginning
all you wanted was to show her
But now you're scared
You think she's running away
You search in your hand for something clever to say
Don't go away
'cause I want
To keep her in your pocket
Where there's no way out
Put it in a safe and lock it
'cause it's home sweet home
home sweet home
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Other reviews
By coppino
The whole album is a drag, pieces that don’t even release a hint of the violence suggested by the blood-red cover.
Shit, pure shit... YOOAAAA.
By ciaglia
Jack wisely decided to insert a second guitar in almost all the songs on this record, which makes the sound more pleasant while still remaining hard and raw garage rock!!!
The beautiful last track 'Well It’s True That We Love One Another' is sung by both Jack and Meg plus the third voice of Holly Golightly, which makes their bond increasingly unclear.
By Sir Psycho Sexy
Simply creative geniuses at the service of strange, simple yet complete music.
The White Stripes limit themselves to hitting a crash to indicate entering the chorus, with excessive use of the timpani and bass drum played to keep time.
By rockanto
The catchy tune is actually the most important guitar riff since that nice distorted guitar line played by Kurt Cobain at the beginning of 'Smells like a teen spirit'.
A record to listen to and listen to again, because each time it will seem more beautiful.
