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DE STIJL
The White Stripes
(Sympathy for the Record Industry)
It looks like art rock when you pick it up. But chuck it on and you get a surprisingly pared-down brother and sister duo with a clearly blues-heavy record collection.
Welcome to the White Stripes. Please slide on your white pants now.
De Stijl, which means "the style" in Dutch, is the second album from this Detroit family band.
Often nothing more than a guitar and a drum banging away, shades of Zeppelin and the Kinks immediately fill the air. Raw, sexual. On a song like Why Can't You Be Nicer to Me, it's all Robert Plant, screaming like an orgasmic sorority sister over the drums and cosmic violin. But the general undertone is of more basic blues. The album was dedicated to Blind Willie McTell and features a Son House cover as well as a few other "girl done me wrong" songs. The guitar solo on Little Bird is the best of the year, totally raunchy and hot like Janis Joplin would have liked it.
I don't even know what to call this stuff. The record store in San Francisco dubbed it neo-rock, and the buzz down there is that these guys are going to save rock 'n' roll from such as Blink Lady 11, or whatever the hell it is the kids are listening to these days on the way to their thankless retail jobs.
What's most appealing about it is the muscular energy with which the songs are played. Unlike a lot of modern edgefest rock, the production is spare, the singing macho, the guitar piercing and clear. This album could be 25 years old, but it just came out. And when I saw them live I had to change my clothes afterwards. So.
The first couple of songs could easily be radio hits, and these guys are definitely whispered about in America, so be the first one on your block to personally address these passionate weirdos.
Fuzzy and fun, bluesy and bang-on beautiful, this'll make a few best-of lists in a week or so, you just watch!
Track Listing
1.You're Pretty Good Looking
02.Hello Operator
03.Little Bird
04.Apple Blossom
05.I'm Bound To Pack It Up
06.Death Letter House
07.Sister, Do You Know My Name?
08.Truth Doesn't Make A Noise
09.A Boy's Best Friend
10.Let's Build A Home
11.Jumble, Jumble
12.Why Can't You Be Nicer To Me?
13.Your Southern Can Is Mine