De Stijl

I was in Princeton Record Exchange to buy some music and nothing in the new rack appealed to me, so I wandered the store looking to fill some holes in my collection. For the last couple of years I've ended up getting something Jack White-related about this time (two years ago it was the Dead Weather, last year The Raconteurs) so I went back to early White Stripes to pick up their second album, De Stijl, from 2002. Now all I'm missing of is their eponymous first album.

I am of the opinion that White is the most interesting musician working today, from the many projects where he plays to those he produces, like Loretta Lynn and Wanda Jackson. He's the musician's musician, and after reading Keith Richards' autobiography, I think they are of the same type (minus the drugs, most likely).

De Stijl, which was named after the modernist Dutch art movement most typified by Piet Mondrian, is hardly modernistic. It is a blues-rock album, full of looking back at the old ways, with White's prominent reverb guitar and Meg White's insistent but quiet drumming. There is little other instrumentation. I believe there are no bass guitars anywhere on the record.

All of the songs but two are original--the last cut is a cover of a Blind Willie McTell song. The first few songs are more pop-influenced. "You're Pretty Good Looking (for a Girl)" has a British Invasion sound, and "Apple Blossom" sounds like a lost Paul McCartney. I love "Hello Operator," which sounds more like later White Stripes, and "Little Bird," which really cranks the guitar.

The album gets more blues-oriented as it goes on, with a cover of Son House's "Death Letter," "Truth Doesn't Make a Noise," and "Sister, Do You Know My Name."

I've still got one Raconteurs album, one Dead Weather, and that first White Stripes album to go to finish all the Jack White studio stuff, at least on those he plays. It's a worthy ambition to collect 'em all.