TheBig3

With all due respect, Stu, my man. I think thats a misreading of the career.

The first album is a little green which is fine, but I don't know if I'd call it gold. Certainly some songs are foreshadowing the greatness (hell, my name references one of them) but we should call a spade a spade.

As for the final two, GBMS was a clear peel-off of the superficial fan. Its the same thing they did in the clubs in Detroit: play in candy costumes and get rid of any fan who isn't music-oriented. The Stripes have never really liked being a symbol of the musical underground insofar as it was fashionable.

everything about GBMS was to eradicate debris picked up with Elephant. Icky Thump was, I think, a band who'd decided it could do no wrong, so it did whatever it the hell it wanted. I personally love both albums. Sure, the stripes fool with the line between great and terrible, but thats because they are going for the passion of the moment. Who's not seen that portion of It Might Get Loud when Jimmy Page is pontificating about just how great the writing process was for Stairway that he can't even recall how it was done, meanwhile, on a farm in Kentucky Jack's written, recorded, and bagged a song ready to ship.

So much weight is put into editing, Lord knows I suffer at its hand with all the **** I take for not proof-reading everything thing I write, but there doesn't need to be. Theres something to be said for going with the gut and leaving it there, and theres also something to be said for not thinking we're Melville with guitars, and that everything we write is Moby ****.

I'll miss The White Stripes because they did successfully what I always felt was right - sticking to your guns and saying "if it ain't spontaneous, its suspect."

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Raust

A bit late, but I heard that The White Stripes just broke up. I really enjoyed there music growing up as a kid and were one of the first current bands I really got into when I thought there was "no hope for current music." 2011 all of a sudden doesn't look as bright as I thought it would be with this announcement. There's still a lot to look forward to though.

Sneer

I was giving a subjective opinion on how I personally viewed their career.

As far as I'm concerned, the first four albums are all great.

I love the s/t and De Stijl because of their primal, garage-blues aesthetic. When they came out I was what, 12? Listening to those albums for the first time was a defining moment in my youth as I hadnt heard any thing like it before (my musical tastes were yet to blossom), consequently they led me onto the likes of Gun Club, The Oblivions and the Gories, as well as Blues musicians such as Leadbelly and Son House. I will always love them for expanding my horizons.

White Blood Cells and Elephant... well, not much needs to be said. They are just great albums.

NOW, you can go on about GBMS being the album the Stripes released to restore a modicum of creative freedom and release themselves from the shackles of their previous success. Great, good for them, doesnt mean I have to like it. Though I respect such moves I thought, with exception to around 4 songs, the album was quite poor. As for Icky Thump, I thought it was a marginally better album, but it was inconsistant and laden with either filler or songs that I actually really disliked.

As a consequence of these two albums I was not sitting around for their next offering with bated breath. I just didnt feel that excitement like I used to. Which is why I have shown ambivalence to their split. I'm grateful for the great albums they made at an important stage in my life, and that's where it ends.

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TheBig3

Oh don't be so typically musicbanter. I never said you had to like it, I'm saying it isn't a good indicator of the bands decline.

I think Jack White is still a monster.

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Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

I liked a lot of their earlier work, I actually can't stand Elephant, and feel "Get Behind Me Satan" is actually a better album even if not one of their best.

They were a good band, massively overrated, I think just stretched thin by the fact there's not much you can do with their style of minimalist garage blues. Almost really awesome that they were allowed to contrast the mainstream that much, and be as big as they were.

White Blood Cells is an amazing album. I think in the style of which it was recorded, and how the songs bleed into each other make it an incredible experience. Somehow any album they did after that lost it.

Point is, you can only run with a gimmick for so long. Jack White is an interesting figure, but I don't find any reason to get into anything he does. I respect him from interviews I've seen for being a very free thinking human being, but can't see much more coming from him. He's kind of like Chris Cornell in a way. Kicks around the mainstream forever, and will pop up randomly getting worlds of exposure, even though it's obvious that the body of any quality work involving him has far passed.

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TheBig3

We haven't met, but you smell like a troll. This, I'm sure, is due to our lack of acquaintanceship. In the interest of Civility, "What didn't you like about Elephant?"

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CanwllCorfe

Heard about this yesterday Quite unfortunate. I really enjoy a good bit of their material. This whole time I was expecting a new album, and then hear that they're breaking up for good. Definitely didn't see that coming.

EDIT: My favorite album from them is a tossup between The White Stripes and De Stijl, since I have more songs from those 2 albums than any of their other ones on my iPhone. It looks to be that I'm in the minority I'm pretty used to it.

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Sneer

@*!# you, you *#!@? #*! *!#@

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TheBig3

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Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

I have like a post count of 700 in the span of 3 months. I don't know how you'd miss my presence. I'm a part of an album club, and running another. To insinuate I'm a troll is not only out of line, but completely ignorant. Besides, my topic wasn't trolling at all.

It was simply stating my opinion that I felt Elephant wasn't that good of an album, and that the White Stripes breaking up wasn't heartbreaking because they are years since starting to run low on gas. How this would get a rise out of anybody, I don't know. It's obvious that I wasn't trying to bash Jack White to get a reaction, as I supply both compliments, and criticisms.

Elephant just feels flat, and generic. Maybe that's why it was such a breakout but it never felt very lively. White Blood Cells was very clever in the way it was put together, and recorded. It had a very different vibe. Elephant was just generic bluesy rock, and not particularly good generic bluesy rock. Seven Nation Army is a decent song, but once you realize it's basically the same riff for 20 minutes, albeit it's a good riff, it loses it's appeal.

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