FEATURE:
21st Century Breakdown
My Favourite Album of the Century (So Far)
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I have seen a lot of buzz on social media…
PHOTO CREDIT: @sethdoylee/Unsplash
because The Guardian have run a feature that unites their one-hundred favourite albums; those records that highlight the brilliance of this century (so far). Although we are not even a fifth of the way through this century, we are ending a decade and looking ahead to 2020. For that reason, many will be reflecting on their favourite album from this decade, at the very least. Maybe Beyoncé’s Lemonade (2011) would scoop that honour…or Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly (2015). In terms of considering the finest albums of the century to date, that is pretty tough! I love Kate Bush’s Aerial (2005) and, in fact, I could put together a list of one-hundred and the order would change all the time! I agree with most of the albums included in The Guardian’s feature and, aside from the order needing a bit of a rejig, there are plenty of belters in there! Maybe Kate Bush’s Aerial would scoop the honour when it comes to the best album of this century. It is definitely high up there and, when thinking about the record I would crown as the best, one stood out because of its emotional importance and meaning. Before getting there, The Guardian explained why Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black is at the top of their list:
“Certainly, it could not prepare the listener for Back to Black: nothing about Frank suggested that its creator was going to make a genuinely epochal masterpiece. Something had happened to Amy Winehouse in the three years that separated her second album from her debut: skinny, covered in tattoos, dressed like a cartoon of a 60s girl-group member – complete with a vertiginous beehive modelled on that of the Ronettes’ Ronnie Spector – she was almost unrecognisable. The lyrics of its lead single suggested that whatever had happened wasn’t good – no one pleads with you to go to rehab if your life is in perfect shape – but the music was so ebullient you could easily overlook that.
Back to Black is an exceptionally forlorn 35 minutes: the closest its mood of self-loathing and hopelessness comes to a resolution is Addicted’s bitter line about how marijuana “does more than any dick did”. But it says something about the skill of her songwriting and the arrangements that it is so easy to listen to. What Winehouse had to say was despondent and troubling, but when her voice soars on the chorus of Tears Dry on Their Own, or the intro to You Know I’m No Good sashays out of the speakers, it doesn’t feel like hard work. Even its bleakest moment, when the title track collapses into a funereal thud and Winehouse keeps disconsolately repeating the word “black”, comes wrapped in gorgeous vocal harmonies and strings.
A rare instance of critical acclaim chiming with public taste, it sold millions. It may well be the most influential album of the last 20 years. The immediate effect of its success was a wave of artists obviously working in her image. Female vocalists made retro soul-influenced music, replacing Winehouse’s troubled unpredictability with something less volatile and more marketable: earthy everyman good humour or cute kookiness. Adele was by far the most successful, but at one point there seemed to be dozens of them, all filling the void created by the fact that Winehouse was increasingly unable to play live, let alone complete another record (as the posthumous Lioness compilation revealed, she recorded virtually nothing in the final years of her life, taping only two songs for a projected follow-up). Winehouse’s vocal style became a kind of all-purpose pop template, its idiosyncrasies reduced to a series of slurred, prematurely aged tics intended to signify emotional authenticity. Nearly 15 years on, you still can’t move for twentysomething men who sound like ravaged blues shouters and twentysomething women trying their best to channel Billie Holiday”.
IN THIS PHOTO: The White Stripes in June 2001/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
I can appreciate what is being said and, in my view, that 2006 album is phenomenal. I would spend ages debating my top-hundred list but, in terms of importance and place – if not necessarily my favourite as such – I would put The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells at the top of the list. I can think of albums by Dizzee Rascal and Kendrick Lamar that hold a lot of power but, personally, it is White Blood Cells that sticks in my mind the longest. I discovered the duo when I was at university in Cambridge back in 2002. I was unfamiliar with them until them (I had heard bits but not a whole deal) and was introduced to them by the Membership Secretary at the Cambridge Footlights, Tom Tilley. We have not seen each other for years, but he was an important part of my time at university. I was actually at Anglia Ruskin University but had always wanted to be part of the Cambridge Footlights. It was a hard transition because I was not from the same world and background as a lot of the people I was around. It was great being part of an institution and club that has seen everyone from John Cleese and Stephen Fry pass through. It was pretty exciting but, for a long time, I wondered how to fit in and whether I would succeed – I performed a few times and went to various social events.
Tom was a useful guide and friend and, before long, he was bringing the music of The White Stripes to my attention. I think the first he played me was their eponymous debut of 1999 but, soon enough, I was being made aware of White Blood Cells. That album arrived in July 2001 and I was not that aware of the Garage music of Detroit (where the duo were from) at the time. It was only a year until Elephant came around in 2003; considered the best album from The White Stripes. I was not used to music like that and, up until that point, it was a lot of Rock and Alternative stuff. The White Stripes provided something a bit gritty, lo-fi and captivating. I was raised around Grunge but The White Stripes managed to mix melody and tunefulness with rawness and scintillation. White Blood Cells came out in a year where everyone from Radiohead and The Strokes were releasing sensational albums. It was a heady and creative time for music and, in a broad landscape during a heady year, The White Stripes were doing their own thing. The sixteen-track third album from Jack and Meg White is a step up from 2000’s De Stijl and is so varied! Songs switch from the very short to longer; there is so much going on and such confidence and chemistry from the duo. From the brilliant and compelling opener, Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, to intriguing and unusual This Protector, White Blood Cells hits me. It is one of those albums where there are no weak tracks.
The energy and wonder barely lets up. The first four tracks off of White Blood Cells – Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, Hotel Yorba; I’m Finding It Harder to Be a Gentleman and Fell in Love with a Girl – are brilliant. Hotel Yorba has a charming skip and catchiness whereas I’m Finding It Harder to Be a Gentleman makes you smile with its images of Jack White trying to keep his cool. Fell in Love with a Girl is a sub-two-minute blast that one can recall every word to – and it has that great video from Michel Gondry (who would work with the band a lot through their career). Expecting and Little Room are transition songs to the mid-way point. The former is snarling and chugging whereas Little Room lasts under a minute and has Meg providing her most fervent drumming whilst Jack yodels as he discusses this mysterious room in a song that makes you wonder what is being said; what we are imagining and where it derives. The rest of the album mixes gorgeous songs such as The Same Boy You’ve Always Known and I Can Learn with rippers like I Think I Smell a Rat and The Union Forever. There are many standouts. Aluminium is a gargling, robot-like song that is from another planet; We’re Going to Be Friends sounds like it could have come from Sesame Street whilst Now Many has a sway and hook that belies lyrics that have darkness to them.
I remember setting time aside away from studies to listen to the album. I popped the C.D. in and let the tracks cascade and affect. I was instantly startled by how memorable the tracks were. The diversity and sheer scope was staggering but there was no big production layers and a load of musicians: it was Jack and Meg tackling everything, laying it all down in Memphis over a few days. That is another that amazed me: just how quickly the album came together! The duo never took more than a few days for most of their albums – the earliest ones at least – and you can feel that urgency and energy in every moment. Bands today would take months to record an album as bold and brilliant as White Blood Cells. The fact that these two musicians (formerly married; Jack White claimed they were siblings to avoid any press intrusion) produced such an amazing album in a few days is mind-blowing. Although there is not such a thriving Garage scene now – compared to the late-1990s and early-2000s at least -, The White Stripes’ third albums not only inspired them (to produce something even bigger) but is has resonated with artists through the years. It is not surprising to see White Blood Cells has gained a lot of huge reviews and plaudits. Here is AllMusic’s assessment:
“Despite the seemingly instant attention surrounding them -- glowing write-ups in glossy magazines like Rolling Stone and Mojo, guest lists boasting names like Kate Hudson and Chris Robinson, and appearances on national TV -- the White Stripes have stayed true to the approach that brought them this success in the first place. White Blood Cells, Jack and Meg White's third effort for Sympathy for the Record Industry, wraps their powerful, deceptively simple style around meditations on fame, love, and betrayal.
IN THIS PHOTO: The White Stripes playing at John Peel's home in 2001/PHOTO CREDIT: Sheila Ravenscroft
As produced by Doug Easley, it sounds exactly how an underground sensation's breakthrough album should: bigger and tighter than their earlier material, but not so polished that it will scare away longtime fans. Admittedly, White Blood Cells lacks some of the White Stripes' blues influence and urgency, but it perfects the pop skills the duo honed on De Stijl and expands on them. The country-tinged "Hotel Yorba" and immediate, crazed garage pop of "Fell in Love With a Girl" define the album's immediacy, along with the folky, McCartney-esque "We're Going to Be Friends," a charming, school-days love song that's among Jack White's finest work. However, White's growth as a songwriter shines through on virtually every track, from the cocky opener "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" to vicious indictments like "The Union Forever" and "I Think I Smell a Rat." "Same Boy You've Always Known" and "Offend in Every Way" are two more quintessential tracks, offering up more of the group's stomping riffs and rhythms and us-against-the-world attitude. Few garage rock groups would name one of their most driving numbers "I'm Finding It Harder to Be a Gentleman," and fewer still would pen lyrics like "I'm so tired of acting tough/I'm gonna do what I please/Let's get married," but it's precisely this mix of strength and sweetness, among other contrasts, that makes the White Stripes so intriguing. Likewise, White Blood Cells' ability to surprise old fans and win over new ones makes it the Stripes' finest work to date”.
Eighteen years after it was unleashed into the world, White Blood Cells sounds so fresh and keeps bearing rewards. We were still getting used to the new century and there was a lot of change happening in music from 2001-2003. Look at movements and artists who came and went; the terrific albums that were released during this period and the sheer quality! When I found The White Stripes’ White Blood Cells in 2002, I fell in love with the album and was compelled to listen back to their previous two albums. The duo would become bigger in the U.K. but it was D.J.s like John Peel who helped give their music a bigger voice here. In the press, they were often portrayed as being quite elusive or odd. I remember a few of the photoshoots around 2001/2002 and these pale-faced artists who, as I said, pretended to be brother and sister. None of that really mattered but it was interesting to see these guys in their black-white-and-red clothing, playing this brilliant music without the flash, celebrity and crutches so many other artists possessed. They were a breath of a fresh air and I was suitably ready when Elephant arrived in 2003 – recorded at Toe Rag Studious in London and, to many, it is their finest hour. The Guardian’s feature has got many people thinking about their favourite albums of this century.
I admire the fact The Guardian selected Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black as their top choice. It was her thirty-sixth birthday yesterday – Winehouse died in 2011 aged twenty-seven – and Winehouse’s masterpiece sounds utterly heartbreaking. Whilst we wish she was still around, we can take heart in the fact she was with us long enough to release such a timeless album. For me, there are a lot of great albums that would be in my top-hundred of this century but, for personal reasons, White Blood Cells tops the list. It still gives me shivers now and makes me think of a time in life when I was embarking on new challenges and trying to find my feet. This album alone did not make life easier but I developed this passion for The White Stripes and they gave me such strength and comfort. I listen to White Blood Cells now and the songs still sound so gripping and exciting. I get transported and lifted when listening but there are so many emotions at work; one needs some serious time to really get to grips with the album. I know we are less than a fifth of the way through this century but it is interesting to think which albums of the past twenty years have made the biggest impact on you. A fair few other albums were near the top of my list – including Kate Bush’s Aerial and Dizzee Rascal’s Boy in da Corner -, but there is the one that, for me, has that…
SPECIAL edge.