The White Stripes' White Blood Cells turns 20
The album that turned Jack White into a rockstar celebrates two decades
All it took was the basic riff, crashing drums, and the sub-two minute bliss of “Fell In Love with a Girl” for my world to turn upside down. In the fall of 2001, my life would shift as the rock and roll revival of the early aughts hit alternative radio and introduced me to a whole new world of music beyond classic rock and early emo and pop-punk. Hitting stores months before making its way to my ears, the third album by The White Stripes would set me off on a course that I’m still following today. It sounds cliche to say “this record changed my life” and while I will also use that phrase in another, future post in the coming months, it does feel particularly true when thinking back on White Blood Cells. The raw, bluesy guitar and minimal drums pushed simplicity to the extreme and immediately got me hooked on how sometimes all you need are the basics to really rock.
Long before Jack White became a household name and the guitar-god of the new millennium, he was just the frontman of a minimal rock and roll duo trying to bring the blues back to rock and reinvent what it could mean to be in a rock and roll band in general. As the ‘90s came to an end, guitar rock was out of fashion as boy bands, pop singers, rap, and nu-metal dominated the radio and MTV. Indie music had made significant progress in the decade prior, but it was still mostly regulated to college radio and magazines, but as the new decade carried on and the internet was proving to be a new medium for obtaining music, rock and roll stepped back into focus as The Strokes, The Vines, The Hives, and the White Stripes proved that no-frills, no-glamour rock could still speak to the masses and a whole new generation of people that weren’t impressed by the luxurious production stylings of the rap-rock scene that was trying to assert themselves as the dominant male voice in music.
Following their self-titled debut and its follow-up, De Stijl, Jack and Meg White constructed their career-changing and style-defining record in only a matter of weeks and after riding a steady wave of commotion surrounding their live shows, released White Blood Cells to an unsuspecting market. Soon, the band found themselves gaining heavy rotation on MTV and modern rock radio with their peers in the Garage Rock Revival. Led by Spike Jonez landmark video for “Fell In Love with a Girl,” the Stripes were quickly on their way to becoming one of the biggest names not just in the underground, but mainstream rock as well.
The first thing we hear on the record is Jack plugging in, turning on his guitar, and Meg whacking her sticks to count us in and from there, everything just explodes. “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” is a total banger full of raw power and energy that sets the stage for everything that will follow. White’s voice is gravelly; his howl is remarkable right from the start and it’s immediately clear that they’ve elevated their sound from the first two records and are ready to embark on the next phase of their career. No longer just a bar band that feels and sounds as grimey as the stages they’ve graced across the country, but one that is ready to turn that on for the masses all while keeping their integrity in place; never breaking character or the color theme that got them from basements to award shows.
This was the White Stripes coming into their groove, owning their sound, and beginning to push the limits of what they could do as a guitar and drum duo. Simple, tapping acoustic number “We Are Going to Be Friends” was an unexpected ballad that marked the half-way point and showcased Jack’s ability to write simple, pleasurable songs that didn’t need the volume cranked up to 11 and instead highlighted his range that had previously felt, while excellent, rather limited. Their shtick seemed clear: basic rock and roll made from drums and swelling guitar licks with slight piano and organ notes peppered in for some added texture. However shtick downplays their brilliance. In the early aughts, they weren’t immediately accepted as the saviors of rock and roll and for many it seemed like their brother/sister folklore, color scheme, and simplistic style was more of an act than their true selves, but two decades later, the authenticity of this album feels more true than ever and not only is a landmark of the time, but it perhaps rocks harder now than it did upon its release.
With its metallic guitar clang and dry drumming, there was no studio magic to unpack and gave listeners an unfiltered sound that was so pure and raw, it would set a new precedent and also introduce us to the last record of Jack White’s career before he took on his rock star persona. The record was lauded for its realness and its fresh take to dial things back and undo the past decades worth of high-definition production values that would catapult other bands to the top of the charts. It didn’t aim to reinvent rock and roll, but rather personify it in its most pure form. This was a record that felt honest and real. One made by a real musician who understood not just the history of music, but knew his way around a studio and more recording tricks up his sleeve than anyone could ever expect. White Blood Cells combines the blues and punk to deliver something that felt so genuine and different from the rest of music which was mass-produced and glammed up by an industry that valued money and greed over artist morals and integrity. Jack wasn’t afraid to list country, folk, and blues singers as his biggest influence rather than the usual Zeppelin, Who, Doors, and other classic rock staples and that seemed to somehow make him even cooler.
It’s not an aggressive or heavy record, but it’s gritty and dirty. The guitar is anything but clean and Meg’s drumming is steady at best, leaving in the errors and blemishes that would’ve been cleaned-up by other bands, but for the Stripes, it was them showing vulnerability to a world that wanted perfection. It sounds like the Motor City with equal parts the Stooges and the MC5 as Jack’s vocals seem to become more scorched with each scream while his guitar rips out riffs reminiscent of Neil Young’s rust-heavy late-’70s live albums. This is a record that can get sloppy, but still holds attention and never seems unfinished or rushed. Even in its rawness, perfection and attention to detail aren’t sacrificed. These aren’t artificial errors or filters aimed at making it nostalgic, but rather White’s individualized approach that would set him on a path over the next twenty years beyond any fans expectation. As colossal sounding as “Fell In Love with a Girl” felt at the time, I had no clue that their next album would contain the new anthem for all of sports around the world. When White Blood Cells hit stores, it didn’t sell massive amounts of copies or sky rocket to the top of the charts. In 2001, the White Stripes were still an indie band consisting of a brother-sister duo that offered a fresh new take on the blues with an added new millennium (candy cane) twist.
In the years since its release, I struggle with whether to consider White Blood Cells as the band’s magnum opus because only two years later, Elephant would arrive only and transform them into global rock stars. However, none of that would’ve happened without White Blood Cells and nothing that would come after can even compare to the stature of work cranked out by these two over these few years. While Elephant cemented their studio talents and ingenuity, White Blood Cells is the White Stripes in their most honest and truest form. It’s the album that put them on the map and the one that changed their history. The Revolver to Elephant’s Sgt. Pepper in their discography, it taught me that music didn’t need to be extravagant to be great.