White Stripes “Elephant” V2
Records
Innovative. Groundbreaking. Virtuosic. Exciting. Emotional.
Heartbreaking. Breathtaking. Booty-shaking. The White Stripes are
one of the most important bands making music right now. Avril the
first, right, Avril the first. The biggest problem with the White
Stripes isn’t what many people would want you to believe that
it is, that they’re hogging all of the good music-making
talent in the world of rock ‘n’ roll. The biggest
problem with them is that none of the aforementioned adjectives
describe what they do. And if they are important to anything or
anyone in particular besides over-the-hill fawning critics, you
could have fooled me. The list take two: Derivative. Unattractive.
Mild. Semi-incestual. Repetitive. Bland. Made prepackaged for the
digestion of future soft jazz listeners who currently think
they’re rocking postadolescents who are really in a stilted
state of music-listening immaturity = White Stripes’ new
album “Elephant.” That seems a bit more like it. That
said, I’m not a White Stripes hater. I think they’re
inoffensive, bland rockers. Meg White can’t drum. And Jack
White is a talented Led Zeppelin rip-off artist (a white guy in to
traditional blues ““ well, at least he’s not from
England). The White Stripes do what they do on
“Elephant.” It’s slightly less loud rock
‘n’ roll than “White Blood Cells,” but many
of the same guitar riffs are used. There’s more piano and
extra vocal tracks here, but the garage energy that gave
“White Blood Cells” the mass appeal it had is toned
down here. “Elephant” is less a masterpiece than the
same record they’ve always made. -Anthony
Bromberg
Prince “Music From the Motion Picture
“˜Purple Rain'” Warner Brothers
Sure, this album is really old, but I just got it, and
it’s great. Who knew Prince could craft perfectly weird pop
songs? Apparently, a lot of people knew, but still, maybe you
didn’t. In fact, if you didn’t, I suggest you go get
this album (when I have more money I plan to buy some more Prince
records). This crazy guy can play serious guitar and keyboards and
sing with a strange sexuality that he somehow makes work
smashingly. From the monster ballad title track to the opening cut
“Let’s Go Crazy” (which if you listen to it on
headphones proves to be one of the great singles of the
’80s). This album is a rocker in a very good, cheesy,
beautiful way. -Anthony Bromberg
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks “Pig Lib”
Matador Records
I must say, this album is somewhat surprising. The second album
from Stephen Malkmus’ post-Pavement solo project, The Jicks,
sounds a lot less like the second Jicks album and a lot more like
the sixth Pavement album. Abandoning the infinitely catchy,
sugar-coated pop that made his first solo outing such a pleasantly
surprising departure from the Pavement oeuvre, with this record
Malkmus seems intent to continue the evolution of the Pavement
sound. Indeed, it takes many of the sonic elements of that
band’s swan song, “Terror Twilight,” and pushes
them even more to the forefront of the sound. While unexpected,
this is by no means a bad thing. Here again are the stilted
rhythms, the strange abstract lyrics (“Don’t feed the
oysters underneath the clouds,” says the album’s third
cut), and the apathetic vocal delivery that made Pavement’s
sound. And elements suggested at the end of Pavement’s
career, only to be discarded for the first Jicks album, are more
fully realized than ever before with this album. Particularly, this
means more spacey, improvisational instrumental passages. Now,
normally this is a recipe for disaster, but Malkmus pulls it off
with aplomb. The centerpiece of the record is the sprawling epic,
“1 Percent of One.” Clocking in at over nine minutes,
the song never settles into stale repetition. If other so-called
jam bands could jam this well, you might be seeing me at the next
String Cheese Incident show. Until that day comes though,
I’ll just sit here and listen to my copy of “Pig
Lib.” -Dan Crossen