Had a friend c.2006 who was weirdly obsessed with Jack White. Dragged me to The Raconteurs. We kind of fell out (not because of that gig) and when I reconciled with him 7 years later, he’d completely gone off Jack White. Deleted all his White Stripes plays off last.fm.
Aside from that, they struck me as a band that people followed while they were around, then when they split, no one cared any more. Hardly hear anyone talk about the White Stripes.
4/5 for me. First got into White Blood Cells when it came out after hearing Hotel Yorba and FILWAG on the radio and absolutely loved it so got the first two which are both brilliant. Elephant and GBMS have huge periods of greatness too but a tad too much filler. Incredible live too. Jack White seems like a deeply strange man, I like that in a musician.
Loved them for quite a time. They seemed to be massive due to word of mouth around White Blood Cells and were great live. No dud albums either but honestly not listened to much of their stuff for quite some time. 4/5
Around the time of De Stijl/White Blood Cells they were one of the most exciting live bands I’d ever seen and releasing genuinely thrilling records. I’d have probably given them 6 at the time but years of Jack White’s general dickishness have (perhaps unfairly) soured the memory down to a 3.
When i was young, like 10/11 i guess, the White Stripes were one of the few contemporary bands i remember my parents listening to - they had a couple of albums on CD and maybe saw them live once too.
I didn’t know they were at any point a ‘cool’ band or a ‘buzz’ band so when I started reading NME around 2007, I was surprised to realise they were often cover stars. At one point, they gave away an Icky Thump 7” with the magazine, which seems crazy now.
I never really got into them though - I do remember watching the clip when they appeared on the Simpsons a lot on the early days of YouTube. Like, not the whole episode, just that clip in isolation - no idea why.
Since they split, I’ve still never listened beyond the big singles and the first album. Jack White seems like a bad egg (grumpy real music weirdo, not anything malicious) too, which hasn’t made me any more inclined to give them another go.
All about context and I’m sure if I’d have seen them in a Camden dive bar circa 2001, they’d be 5/5. But my memories are mostly of the omnipresence of One Nation Army a few years later. They do have a handful of great songs I’m aware of, Hotel yorba, Fell in love with a girl, etc. so I’m aware I may be being unfairly harsh but can’t really get past my main association with them now being football chants. Sorry.
One of the first bands I properly got into after the nu-metal / so-cal punk phase I had to go along with with my friends. Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground was on rotation on Kerrang TV (which I could only see when I was at my grandparents because they had Sky), and at some point I bought a copy of NME and they were on the cover. Loved the urgency of the music, the theatre of the colour scheme and their disguised relationship, the mythology they worked into their music. And the songs just slapped, especially pre-Elephant (I probably started to pretend I went off them when Seven Nation Army became huge). I bought their tabs books and everything. A couple of years ago I was stranded at Detroit airport and saw Jack White walk past dressed head to toe in purple leather (he’s enormous as well), which is a proper Detroit experience.
Probably one of the bands I’ve gone off hardest. Used to absolutely love them - Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground is one of the first songs I learned on guitar and have seen them live three times.
The idea of listening to them now though, outside of a couple of songs… I can’t even explain why. The last two albums were shite, as is everything else Jack White has ever touched but that shouldn’t be enough to make me so jaded about their earlier work.
It’s like meeting an old friend after a few years apart and finding that one of you is now on a completely different wavelength and has become quite exhausting company.
Maybe I’ll put White Blood Cells on later and see if I can bump them up to a 4. It almost feels like I owe them that much.
It’s always going to be a 5 as I have said before their appearance on Jools Holland changed everything for me. Will admit a 5 is properly over egging it but, for what came after it’s a 5.
Gone for a 4. At certain points of my life I’ve really loved them. Not so much now but had a little phase around the time of the last jack white album and still enjoyed
