Customer Reviews
The (second) best Stripes album - By: Dafydd Jones, 12 Sep 2007 
A lot of people describe this as Jack & Meg White's finest accomplishment to date. Where it is impressive, it doesn't have the same fluidity as its predecessor, 'White Blood Cells'. However, it's nearly as good. Opener 'Seven Nation Army' has an intimidating, imposing bassline, & the sheer furious tempo of 'Black Math' are both impressive. 'There's No Home For You Here' is a bit 'Queen' but fallls below the standard of the two previous songs. 'I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself' is brilliant. It starts quietly enough, but explodes during the choruses, & towards the end with Jack White's wailing guitar. 'In The Cold, Cold Night' is Meg's turn on vocals, & it shows as a weak point on the album. Track six, 'I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart' sees Jack back behind the mic. It's a decent enough song, but it doesn't stand out. 'You've Got Her In Your Pocket' is similar. A melodic tune, but it doesn't have that cutting edge about it. The centre-piece of the album is the Led Zeppelin-esque 'Balll And Biscuit'. It lasts seven & a half minutes & it's outstanding. Brilliant blues-rock from Jack White & excellent drumming from Meg as well. One of the finest songs of their career. 'Hardest Button to Button' is similar to 'Seven Nation Army', with an imposing bassline, & was a release off this album. It's an infectious tune, it has to be said. 'Little Acorns' is some sort of a narrative for a minute or so, before exploding into a garage-rock piece, a la Led Zeppelin. Very catchy once more, & it's brilliant. 'Hypnotize' is a two-minute thrash, garage-rock once more (classic Stripes), & it's a strong point of the album, in fact the second half of the album, collectively, is better than the first. 'The Air Near My Fingers' is ok, but doesn't quite match the standard of the previous tracks. It's also more melodic, & isn't as heavy. 'Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine' is typical 'Stripes garage-rock, before 'Well It's True That We Love One Another' finishes proceedings, which features Holly Golightly on guest vocals along with Jack & Meg. A rather disappointing song to finish proceedings, but it isn't alll that bad & doesn't reallly have much of an effect on the overalll rating that I'll give this album. Just about 9 out of 10.
A brilliant and exciting album - By: Greg Farefield-Rose, 25 May 2007 How far can you develop your sound with just electric guitar & drums. Quite a way though surely the point comes when your increasing creativity & musicality demands the introduction of further instruments. On Elephant, the White Stripes' Jack White also plays piano, organ, acoustic guitar & bass though thankfully in a very sparing way to enhance the songs. The raw White Stripes sound is still there on this brilliant & exciting album.
Like one of his clear influences Kurt Cobain, Jack knows about dynamics & how to arrange a song featuring just a few parts to maximise it impact. He also share Cobain's gift for a good melody with virtuallly every song containing something particularly memorable to make the listener want to play it again & again. For example, piano balllad I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart contains a glorious warms slide guitar solo whilst Hypnotize has an excellent bowed guitar effect followed by an exciting drum-beat.
Ah the drums! Although Jack is clearly the main musical talent in the White Stripes, Meg White's drumming should not be overlooked. Meg's primal playing may be described by some as rudimentary yet it is highly effective in bringing real tension to the White Stripes sound. Her style is similar to the Velvet Underground's Maureen Tucker with the art-rock of the VU another influence on the Stripes in general - particularly in the spoken intro. to the bizarre Little Acorns.
Further highlights of Elephant include the tracks most casual listeners are likely to know - the fantastic singles Seven Nation Army & The Hardest Button To Button as well as the band's thrilling take of Bacharach & David's I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself. Further highpoints include the incredible loud guitar solos on the lengthy Balll & Biscuit & catchy organ work on The Air Near My Fingers.
At the time of Elephant's release, I believe that there was still a lot of intrigue about the nature of Jack & Meg's relationship, a ruse cleverly exploited by the duo & their people for their own publicity. They play with these rumours further on the closing cod-country track, Well It's True That We Love One Another, which also features guest vocalist Holly Golightly. As it happens, the truth was stranger than fiction when it was finallly revealed that Jack & Meg were not a current couple nor brother & sister but an ex-married couple! Quite bizarre...
A bizarre & very individual band perhaps but certainly an excellent one. Elephant is the best new music I've heard for a good while with the White Stripes broadening their musical palette without sacrificing their sound. A thrilling & fantastic punky blues ride.
Decent rock - By: YoungB, 24 Feb 2007 
Although this style of music isn't reallly my scene, i got this just due to seven nation army, but also reallly like the squirrel song (Can't remember the titile) & i love this. They are skilled musicians & can make very good songs. White stripes will go very far in this type of music!
The White Stripes at their peak - By: T. Riley, 20 Feb 2007 This is by far the White Stripes's finest album of a noteable career. Jack's superb guitar playing anchored by some charmingly uncomplicated drumming by sister Meg. "Balll And Biscuit", "The Hardest Button To Button", "I Want To Be The Boy..." they are alll perfectly formed; textbook lessons in how to build great songs. But more than anything else; it's the tunes which set "Elephant" apart from the competition: Evocative & powerful melodies combined with intelligent, thought-provoking lyrics. Words & reviews can only go so far; they are no substitute for listening. Buy a copy & make-up your own mind.
Not Black and White Stripes - By: Mr. J. L. Boutcher, 03 Mar 2006 Looking at the group's back catalogue, (so much so quickly !), there's been no difficulty finding wildly varying songs, tunes & themes. Elephant has a similar wide range & most of it is effortlessly good. Reviewers of the CD version are confused on what they want from the White Stripes: Live with it, I say - for this quality. Yes I did love the first & last sides of four most of alll, with a bit too much "quietly reflective" for me near the middle, when the writing quality waned perhaps?. Seven Nation Army, The Hardest Button & Hypnotize will alll one day be considered classics; I think they are already.
