Notes & Personnel Info |  | The White Stripes: Jack White (vocals, guitar); Meg White (drums). | | Additional personnel: Suzy Lee (slide guitar). | | Recorded at Ghetto Recorders, Cass Corridor, Detroit, Michigan in January 1999. | | The White Stripes: Jack White (vocals, guitar, piano); Meg White (drum). | | Minimal to the point of sounding monumental, this Detroit guitar-drums-voice duo makes the most of its aesthetic choices and the spaces between riffage and the big beat. In fact, the White Stripes sound like arena rock as hand-crafted in the attic. Singer/guitarist Jack White's voice is a singular, evocative combination of punk, metal, blues, and backwoods while his guitar work is grand and banging with just enough lyrical touches of slide and subtle solo work to let you know he means to use the metal-blues riff collisions just so. Drummer Meg White balances out the fretwork and the fretting with methodical, spare, and booming cymbal, bass drum, and snare cracks. In a word, economy (and that goes for both of the players). The Whites' choice of covers is inspired, too. J. White's voice is equally suited to the task of tackling both the desperation of Robert Johnson's "Stop Breakin' Down" and the loneliness of Bob Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee." Neither are equal to the originals, but they take a distinctive, haunting spin around the turntable nevertheless. All D.I.Y. punk-country-blues-metal singer/songwriting duos should sound this good. ~ Chris Handyside | | Who knew such a stripped down sound, recorded on a tight budget, could deliver such a powerful rock & roll record? The White Stripes, a "brother and sister" guitar-and-drum duo from Detroit, here accomplish the seemingly impossible. Their debut record incorporates the sounds of classic bands such as Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and the Kinks, merging them with the subterranean sounds of early '60s Texas punk. The result is a rock & roll disc crackling with a kind of dysfunctional energy. | | The band's original compositions, including the EXILE ON MAIN STREET-styled "Sugar Never Tasted So Good," the surf-rocker "Astro," and the overdriven screamer, "The Big Train Killed My Baby," are all first-rate garage rockers. But on THE WHITE STRIPES, it's the well-chosen covers--a phenomenal reading of Bob Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee," and a blistering version of Robert Johnson's "Stop Breaking Down"--that truly shine. |
Producer: Jack White |
Engineer: Jim Diamond |
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