A Quick Look at ‘White Blood Cells’ at 25

Best Record of 2001: Day 49

Cover art courtesy of Sympathy For The Record Industry

Good morning!

As part of the Best Record of 2001 series, we’re taking a quick look at The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells

I catch myself whenever I hear Seven Nation Army ring out from the soccer stand. What a song to co-opt! How odd that a band that’s not exactly obsessed with fame still has 1000s of people singing that song 20+ years on. Is there anyone else in that rarified air? My bemusement aside, Elephant is a solid record. How so much sound can come from two people is beyond me, but here we are. Other than some backing vocals, it really is just the two of them. Meg White’s drumming is simple (and simple is never easy), and Jack White’s guitar (and piano) take us from soccer stand fodder to swamp flats on tracks like “I Want to be the Boy to Warm Your Mother’s Heart.” It’s a no-skips record, even if not everything would sound good being yelled from a terrace.

If Elephant is what put the duo on the map, White Blood Cells is what lays the groundwork. I can almost guarantee at some point today someone will work “masterpiece” into the discourse or refer to it as art. The latter is true- all music is art. The former? Mmmm…I don’t know.

Fair play to “Fell In Love with a Girl “; it’s one of the best singles we’ve come…