So why is The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
I’ve had a number of epiphanies related to music in my life.
One involves seeing the music video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first time, and another struck when I saw a live ska show featuring The Toasters, The Scofflaws, and The Pietasters. And a very different epiphany hit me upside the head one day during a university symphony rehearsal, when I realized that I never wanted to play the bass – a skill that helped me to get into my top-choice college – ever again.
And yet another involves The White Stripes.
A few years after college, I moved from New York to the Bay Area. I stumbled into a gig as a digital content editor at a youth sports start-up, and while I made a modest salary, it was the first “real” job I had obtained so to me I was rich.
I had also obtained a hellacious commute from Berkeley to Foster City on the peninsula, which is sort of Silicon Valley. I have a vivid memory of driving near the San Mateo Bridge one night, where there are these massive salt flats.
A song popped onto the radio, and it struck me immediately. I assumed it was some kind of 1970s rock classic that somehow had passed me by. I also recall having several thoughts at the same time – that it sounded nothing quite like I had ever heard before, that it also sounded weirdly familiar, and most of all I immediately loved it deeply.
The song was “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” the lead track on White Blood Cells.
To this day, there’s something absolutely timeless about it. Like so much of The White Stripes’ output, it’s stunning in its originality, its confidence, its power, and yet its disarming sense of intimacy.
The band’s obsession with minimalism is also in full effect here – the lack of a bass player and the dead simple dynamic of a single guitar, drums (and important to note here that my respect for Meg White goes up year over year), and Jack White’s vocals all contribute to the band’s hyper-specific and unique vibe.
“Fell In Love With a Girl” makes me feel giddy every time I hear it. I’m not sure if it’s hard rock or alt rock or power pop or what; I just know that it’s a perfect song.
It’s wild to me that White Blood Cells contains “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” and “Fell In Love With a Girl,” but then the entire rest of the album is very nearly as good. This should give you a read on why this album insisted on getting inside the Top 20 of the best 1,000 albums ever.
“We’re Going to Be Friends” is as sweet and gentle as can be, and all the more delightful for the contrast it casts versus the more aggressive sounds The White Stripes produce.
I also love that the song has taken on a second life as the theme music for Conan O’Brien’s popular podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. And side note that I think it’s cool that O’Brien and Jack White are IRL friends, as the kids (maybe still?) say.
“Hotel Yorba” is a glorious foot-stomping acoustic number, while “The Union Forever” feels funereal and even slightly unsettling but is somehow all the more effective for it. And then “I Think I Smell a Rat” is a powerhouse rocker that rides a bolero beat and always reminds me of the Ramones’ “Beat on the Brat,” subject matter-wise.
While I’ve covered a bunch of White Stripes’ albums in the best 1,000 albums ever project – and have Icky Thump (#95), Get Behind Me Satan (#67), and Elephant (#46) in the Top 100, White Blood Cells stands above them all on its Mt. Rushmore-level tracks, its eclectic musical range, and its sheer quality.
I’ll close with “I Can’t Wait,” which has some of the same qualities as “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” where it feels visceral and also impossible-to-place in that way that marks the very best kind of timeless music.
Some stats & info about The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Detroit Bands, Garage Rock Revival, Garage Punk, Alternative Rock, Blues Rock, Hard Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was White Blood Cells released? 2001
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #19 out of 1,000
The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Said it once before but it bears repeating now.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.