Ten Most Important Albums Of The 00s (to me, at least)

The White Stripes were the greatest band of the 00s. And I’m sticking to that story. Consider what The White Stripes (or just Jack White, really) have accomplished this decade:

-To start, Jack White was brilliant and gave them an instantly recognizable look, utilizing red, white and black because he knew those were the most striking colors in nature (Coka Cola, Virgin and the Nazi’s all use(d) the same colors). He also created the little brother-sister/husband-wife mystery that surrounded the band back in the early days.

-Then, they (along with The Strokes) totally revitalized rock at the turn of the century.

-They made it totally acceptable to be a drums-guitar two piece and now some of the hottest bands (No Age, Japandroids, Dodos) are only guitar and drums duos.

-They almost single-handedly gave Detroit a short-lived rock scene, with Jack White going so far as to produce albums for other then up-and-coming Detroit bands like The Von Bondies and put together a compilation to celebrate the scene called Sympathetic Sounds Of Detroit.

-He basically made Brendan Benson a rock star, first by calling his album, Lapalco, his new favorite album on his website, and then starting The Raconteurs with him. Speaking of side projects, he’s got two (The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather; he refers to them as other bands, not side projects), both of which are pretty decent.

-He contributed solo tracks to the soundtrack for Cold Mountain. He wrote and performed (with Alicia Keys) the theme song for the latest James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

He wrote the song “Love Is The Truth” for a great Coke commercial that only aired in Australia and once in the UK.

The White Stripes also appeared in the Jim Jarmusch film Coffee and Cigarettes, and Jack White had small parts in Cold Mountain and Walk Hard, in which he was awesome.

They had a guest spot in a Simpsons episode.

Jack White was one of the featured guitarists (along with Jimmy Page and The Edge) in the 2009 documentary It Might Get Loud.

The music videos they made with Michele Gondry for “Fell In Love With A Girl” and “Hardest Button To Button” are acknowledged classics.

-He produced the Grammy award winning comeback album, Van Lear Rose, for country legend Loretta Lynn. He (ironically) played bass on the song “Go It Alone” on Beck’s 2005 album Guero. He worked with Beck on three songs, “It’s My Fault For Being Famous”, “Cash Grab Complications On The Matter”, and “Honey, We Can’t Afford To Look This Cheap” on the Conquest EP. He sang on the Electric Six’s classic “Danger! Danger! High Voltage”. He has supposedly worked with Bob Dylan on some Hank Williams tribute album and done some kind of work with The Rolling Stones. The Flaming Lips have a song called “Thank You Jack White (For The Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me)”.

-He has his own record label, Third Man Records, which released all six White Stripes records, as well as albums by the band Whirlwind Heat. It will soon release an album by a band called The Muldoons. It recently opened up a physical store in Nashville.

-The White Stripes have won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album for their last three albums (Elephant in 2004, Get Behind Me Satan in 2006, Icky Thump in 2008) and they won Best Rock Song for “Seven Nation Army” in 2004. They’ve played at the Grammys and The MTV Movie Awards. They were also the first band to play on The Daily Show.

-In 2007, they toured to every province and territory in Canada, including Nunavut. The tour was filmed and released as the movie The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights, which screened for the first time at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009.

-Not to mention they’ve made six great albums over the past ten years (The White Stripes in 1999, De Stijl in 2000, White Blood Cells in 2001, Elephant in 2003, Get Behind Me Satan in 2005, Icky Thump in 2008), each a unique entry in the catalogue.

-I’ve seen the White Stripes twice and I own the live DVD Under Blackpool Lights and they’re fucking awesome live. So awesome that they topped a Rolling Stone poll for the greatest contemporary live band.

Wow. Anyone want to name another band or artist that has accomplished that much this decade? That’s right: it’d be tough.

So why is Elephant the album of the decade? Well, it’s hard to say if it’s their best (that might actually be Get Behind Me Satan), it wasn’t their breakout (that would be White Blood Cells), but it is perhaps their most classic. I mean, the leadoff single is “Seven Nation Army”, possibly the most rifftastic song since “Smoke On The Water” or “Ironman”. It was also the first rock song I ever performed live (I sang, didn’t even play guitar). Camp Shalom. 2003. That alone makes the album a classic.

But it’s more than that. If White Blood Cells was where The White Stripes really found their sound, Elephant was where they perfected it. It was also the first time they made an album that really held together perfectly and they’ve managed to continue that on subsequent releases. They could still be weird and eclectic, but somehow they managed to make it work better, make it fit in better. And Jack White was getting really interesting as a producer and record-maker: check out the Queen-esque wall of harmonies on “There’s No Home For You Here”, or the little self-help intro to “Little Acorns”.

Elephant was also the first time we got to hear Jack White really let loose with his guitar skillz on record. He wasn’t just about big, bad chords, as evidenced by the zippery solo on “Seven Nation Army”, the frantic bombast on “Black Math”, the bluesy squalor on “Ball and Biscuit” and the playful interludes on “Girl You Have No Faith In Medicine”. I think I forgot to mention that Rolling Stone named him the 17^th Greatest Guitarist of All Time. Just add that to the list.

“Hardest Button To Button” was another great single. “You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket” was a beautiful little tune. “Well It’s True That We Love One Another” was a cute little closer featuring Holly Golightly. In 2006 I was writing a song and I needed a name for it (I couldn’t use the chick’s real name…which was Leah…it didn’t work anyways) and I thought about “Holly” because of Holly Golightly, who I knew from that song. The Fancy Claps song “Holly” later got my band named one of the top 25 best bands on Myspace by RollingStone.com.

Another thing I like about the White Stripes is that it didn’t come too easy to them. They didn’t ride in on a wave of hype; they broke big after six years and three albums, not a couple of songs on blogs. When they started out, people wouldn’t come to see them because they didn’t like Jack’s voice. People would give them shit about not having a bass, and say that the brother-sister thing was gimmicky. They totally got dissed in Freaky Friday! Some kid in School Of Rock dissed Meg Whites drumming – along with like everyone else who ever played drums! But look where they made it to! Hipsters like them, they get play on the radio, their songs are featured in movies and commercials (and they get shit for that too), their albums sell, their tours sell, they headline festivals and they still get respect from everyone from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork to Bob Dylan.

So yeah, I’d absolutely say that the most important album of the decade (to me at least) was Elephant, because it best encapsulates all that made and makes The White Stripes awesome. And music awesome. And breathing awesome. Sure, it’s not as crazy as Radiohead and it doesn’t bemoan the state of the world with drum machines and glockenspiel, but does it kick ass? Fuck yeah it does. The White Stripes showed us that all you really need is a simple set-up, a bit of skill, and the balls to weather all the shit people are gonna throw at you on your way to the top. “I’m gonna fight ‘em off/A seven nation army couldn’t hold me back,” Jack sang then and he’s still singing it now. Fuck everyone else: this is rock and roll, this is the dream, and it is worth fighting for.