Now this is not a review, because I’m not rating these albums, nor am I ranking them. All these albums should be viewed as equals. Also a review entails that I should be giving bad reviews and that’s not what I’m doing. All I’m doing is telling you why White Blood Cells (WBC) is a work of art.
White Blood Cells was one of those albums that took everyone by surprise because it came completely from left field. It had a lot of things, punk, blues, country, metal and straight up rock and roll. The beauty of it that it was all wrapped up in a nice little package that Jack White made, and then put a funny little gimmick as the bow. Like a true artist Jack and Meg played up to the press with a question of “were they brother or sister? or are they married, what’s the deal?” Of course, this just made WBC more recognizable. In fact it really didn’t need that, all it needed was some punk and some Lego’s. But that’s neither here nor there really, we’re talking about the album, not what happened because of the album. Let’s examine track 1: Dead Leaves On The Dirty Ground.
Dead Leaves is a fantastic opener, in which the listener is treated to a true rock feedback then a fantastic riff. A rock stomper of a track that gives you that giddy feeling that you’re in the 70’s again, maybe somewhere in the country, maybe with some big mustaches. This track also leads to some of the sweet and macho lyrics. Talks about a “mega sound” and then says about “your breath that is in your lung is a tiny little gift to me”. So we’re not sure if Jack is a selfish cunt or just a loverboy. The next track we think we know the answer, because it’s the sweet aucoustic romp stomper “Hotel Yorba”. A very old-school track which highlights Jack’s passion for the old. This whole album is old, but sounds new at the same time. Hotel Yorba identifies that.
It’s clearer in the next track about Jack’s passion for the good old days when he leads a blusey song called “Finding It Hard To Be A Gentleman.” Of course by now we’re all “ah ha! You’re just a wimpy boy.” But of course this leads to “Fell In Love With A Girl” the noisiest, the fastest, and the best song in the album. Just when we’re starting to figure out Jack, he brings this from his bag of tricks. The first four songs are all about lost loves, lost times, and confusion. Jack talks to us about broken hearts, and broken minds, telling us what he really wants, but playing with us at the same time. This conversation is just really an ice breaker though. We’re just meeting Jack, and now that we’ve met we’re gonna get to know him a lot better.
“Expecting” talks about his problem with women, and then he gives us a little advice with the shortest song of the album “Little Room” that talks about how to write a song. Then I guess we asked him what his favorite movie is, because he answers back with “The Union Forever” a song completely made from lyrics of “Citizen Kane” and also problaby the sourest song on the album. I don’t know if this talks about Jack’s passion for the movie, or talks about his ambition to create a song that is made from another art form, film. But also after The Union Forever you can sense the album’s concept. Fast, then slow, then fast, then slow. Passion, then love, passion, then love. For every experimental rock out, there is a slow ballad. This album has two amazingly sweet songs (Hotel Yorba, and I Think We’re Gonna Be Friends), and two amazingly hard songs (Aluminum, and Fell In Love With A Girl). Therefore WBC becomes more of a college of genres, and a college of feelings, of emotion. All of them emiting from a very primitative approach. Guitar and drums. Blusey style, country style, rock and roll style.
Then it circles again, “Offend In Every Way” is the direct opposite of “Finding it Hard to be A Gentleman” in sound, in beat, and in position. It’s basically the top half is Angel Jack, and the bottom half is Devil Jack. Leaves us with a shred of mystery, questions our motives with a simple riff and a simple lyric “I think I smell a Rat”, then scares us completly with “Aluminium.” A song that is a straight rip of Black Sabbath metal.
Then the album goes back to a bluesey “I can’t wait” that is a complete break up song. Then goes into the apologetic in “Now Mary” and “I can Learn” a very 60’s electric folksy blues number. A very bitter artist. But it ends brilliantly with a gospelly “This protector” with the lyric “you thought you heard a sound, but there is no one else around”.
So in the end, WBC shows us what passion and emotion should feel and sound like if it were coming from a guitar, some drums, and some basic rock and roll. It’s old yet new, familiar yet different. It circles, and dips and rises. A brilliant album all around, not a bad song in the bunch, and a complete album. Jack knows the concept of the album and it’s a true pop(?!) masterpiece.
