One/One Thousand

The White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan

2005

Her album

Eric says: The challenge with listening to The White Stripes is to see beyond the shtick. Once you get past the white/red/black wardrobe, the sibling/spouse pseudo-drama, and the blooz-rawk posturing, you can appreciate the actual songs and musicianship. Get Behind Me Satan is the sound of The White Stripes getting bored with the guitar and drum reliance, and expanding their sonic pallate. But really, what can you say about The White Stripes? Even when they're using a marimba, you know what it's going to sound like. This album isn't going to change your life, but it's fun. I feel obligated to mention the aural vomit that is "Passive Manipulation." Can we all agree that Meg should stay behind the drum kit and never have a microphone in front of her? "The Denial Twist" is classic White Stripes. With little more than just a piano and drums, the song rollicks and rolls. What I love about the song is the way the vocal phrasing, piano rhythm and shaker percussion all counter each other and blend.  Before you know it, you're bobbing your head and swaying your hips. And that is what I like about this band -- it's all about the feel, maaan.

The Denial Twist

Anouche says: Fans of The White Stripes love them for their simple formula of clever, sometimes ironic bluesy guitar rock with the stray novelty song thrown in. Meg White's lack of talent has never bothered us in the scope of the big picture and her enthusiastic banging contributes to the energy and whimsy of their songs. Whenever The White Stripes diverge from this formula, it takes fans like myself a little while to recalibrate and listen to an album for what it is rather than what we expected it to be. Maybe that's why I have never given Get behind Me Satan the attention it deserves, focusing on a few standout songs and ignoring the rest. 

That said, this album may not be as consistently good all the way through as early albums like Dee Stijl or White Blood Cells but it is still a good album with good songs. Out of the 13, maybe three could have been cut resulting in a much stronger album. Among these are the mercifully short "Passive Manipulation," Meg White's 35 second vocal massacre. It's a shame as the lyrics are clever and thoughtful. Sung by someone else, this could have been salvaged. "White Moon" loses out as well as it's a tad boring and "Take, Take, Take," while seemingly adhering to their winning formula just doesn't make the cut. 

That was the bad, or at least what's not living up to expectations. Now for the good. There's a solid stretch of good songs in the middle of the album (From "The Nurse" to "Denial Twist" that are enough to carry the whole effort. "The Nurse" is a vibraphone and shaker composition that has all the quirky energy you'd expect from the White Stripes. "My Doorbell" is a strong song despite its simplicity. This is another guitar-less song, but nonetheless quintessential White Stripes, fun and whimsical with a strong  blues influence. "Little Ghost" is not out of place as it is the kind of novelty song that we expect one or two of on every White Stripes album, but has clearly been influenced by Jack White's role in Cold Mountain and the influence of early American folk music, a divergence that makes sense for a band that bases their style on borrowing from the past and adding their own updates. The album also has a strong finish with "Ugly as I Seem," a melodic tune reminiscent of The Smashing Pumpkins and "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)" which could have been on any of their previous albums.

The Nurse

My Doorbell

Low: The Great Destroyer

2005
Her album

Eric says: There are more than a few albums in our collection that exist in a vacuum – isolated and lonely.  These are the albums that I've forgotten and lay on our shelves unlistened to, glanced over and unnoticed.  I suppose that makes Low's The Great Destroyer an appropriate start to our random listening experiment. My knowledge of Low is fuzzy. I know they've been around for a while and that this album was well-received when it came out.  Oh, and I put "California" – far and away the most sunny, poppy, catchy and melodic tune – on a mix back in 2005.  Other than that, this was the first time I carefully listened to the album.  It's telling that I have a hard time thinking of what to write. It's all quite forgettable – not brilliant by any means nor offensively grating enough to arouse strong emotions.  It's just…..there.  It also sounds like it could have come out in 1995, for better or worse (actually, that's not a good thing).  Most of the time, they kind of sound like a cross between Matthew Sweet, Live and REM circa Monster. I can't imagine putting this on willingly. The album flows like watching a baseball game. You kind of zone out until you wake up all of a sudden and ask yourself, "How long have I not been paying attention? What's been happening?" Anyway, I chose "On the Edge Of" as this album's pick. It kind of reminds me of late 70s Neil Young in a way – I just wish the snare was recorded with a harder feel and didn't have such a muddy production. 

On the Edge Of

Anouche says: I bought this album a few years a ago when it was released and obviously didn't give it much attention. When we pulled it off the shelf the other day I asked Eric if it was his. Then I asked him to add it to my iTunes. It was already in there, although I had removed it from my playlist. After giving it another good listen, I find that I like the individual songs but as an album it's monotone. Have you ever had the experience that you're walking down the street listening to an album and it starts out good, but then 30 minutes later you stop and think, was I listening to something? This is that album. Individually the songs are good and would be great added to a mix. The fuzzy guitars, '90s shoe-gazer feel, prominent female back up vocals  bring to mind My Bloody Valentine, The Pixies and The Pretenders. Although a couple of songs have a novelty feeling that's unfortunately very current. My favorite songs are "Monkey" and "Silver Rider" for the churning guitars and the same reasons mentioned previously (especially The Pixies influence.) The hit, "California," is just a little too "Alternative" for me, although, it's probably the song that made me buy the album.

Monkey