White Blood Cells

by

The White Stripes

Edit

In White Blood Cells, the Stripes are beginning to bloom into a legend. Jack White is obviously developing at light speed right now. Sure he sounded like some kind of Robert Plant novice on De Stijl, but on Cells he's what Curt Cobain should have done eventually with Nirvanna or what Mick could have been if he had taken Jumpin' Jack Flash to the limit. Don't get me wrong....Jack is Jack, no way is he a pale imitation of anybody else, no matter how famous they are. And without Meg backing him like she's the muscle in his spine there would be no Stripes at all.

Dead Leaves spotlights Jack's guitar at a time when he's running full tilt boogie. The essence of punk is in Fell In Love With A Girl, and there is time for quirky stuff where the song won't go away (like Hotel Yorba). All 16 tracks are solid, the CD is one that you will run over and over and over until it's part of who you are.

You really don't know how raw guitar can be until you hear the Stripes in full roar. And Jack will always catch you off guard.....slow downs that make you wanna burst.....triple chords that make you wanna dance....wailing shafts of sound that give you chills.....abrasive isn't the right word.....this sound is so harsh it can draw individual nerve fibers right out of your brain while you love every second of it. This is one that you have to hear to really be alive.

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.