Photo

Soundbites

Published: Tuesday, April 1, 2003

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