Earning their stripes: After years without a new album The White Stripes prove they’re just as good
CD name: ‘Under Great White Northern Lights’
Artist: The White Stripes
Genre: Alternative rock
Sounds like: The White Stripes on steroids
Soundwaves: 4/5
Release date: March 16
The White Stripes have a longstanding reputation as one of the loudest and wildest live bands around. Their new live album, ‘Under Great White Northern Lights,’ does a good job of recreating that trademark vigor, with 16 tracks of guitar rips, drums hits and crowd roars. An impressive live album is tricky to make, yet this one succeeds by highlighting the band’s strengths: Jack White’s unrestrained energy, Meg White’s complementary drumming and the audience’s passionate involvement. ‘Under Great White Northern Lights’ is a great collection of White Stripes hits that should satisfy fans until the next studio album is released.
For the sake of context, know that this is a collection of live songs from the 2007 summer tour. The White Stripes’ performance in Canada was a first for their career, as they were out to blow away foreign audiences with their primal energy. That much is clear from the first track, ‘Let’s Shake Hands,’ which begins on a stern note with bagpipes and militaristic snare drumming. One minute in, the song explodes into overdriven chaos as Jack White screams and hacks away at his guitar’s six strings. The result is crazy and volatile, which continues into the equally wild ‘Black Math.’ The first two tracks set up the unpredictable vibe that ensues throughout the album.
‘The Union Forever’ slows the tempo down, which allows White to show off his unique vocal range by approaching near-psychotic levels with his wails and shrieks. Performances of hits ‘Ball and Biscuit’ and ‘Icky Thump’ maintain this energy, as the Whites sound aggressive and in tune with one another. The momentum starts to heat up in the ninth track, with an emotional version of Dolly Parton’s classic ‘Jolene.’ The minor-chord guitar strums resonate with the crowd one minute, then the drums kick in and the song bursts into overdrive. It sounds great and comes as close to matching onstage energy as a musical medium can. The sound engineers for this album did a terrific job of clearly balancing instrumentation, vocals and crowd ambience while maintaining the mood of a riotous live show.
Naturally, the audience plays a major role in recreating the live White Stripes experience. Acoustic ditty ‘We Are Going to Be Friends’ and the Burt Bacharach cover ‘I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself’ contrast in sound, yet both are enhanced by crowd hand claps and well-placed sing-alongs that complement the band’s flawless delivery. The Stripes give classic ‘Fell in Love with a Girl’ an overhaul, slowing down the tempo and jacking up the audience involvement, and the result is terrific.
Things transition seamlessly into ‘When I Hear My Name,’ which captures one of Jack White’s finest guitar solos. For a guy that usually tones down theatrics on albums, this is some seriously wild shredding. The album concludes with a nearly six-minute, epic rendition of ‘Seven Nation Army,’ the band’s signature song. This is a wild anthem that needs to be seen in person to be fully appreciated, but this version nonetheless ends the live show in proper fashion: wildly and unpredictably.
The White Stripes are known for their prolific output, after releasing five stellar albums between 1999 and 2005. Yet Jack and Meg White have remained absent from the musical scene since 2007’s acclaimed ‘Icky Thump.’ Naturally, the band’s release of a live album in 2010 seems like an obvious attempt to drum up attention and give fans some fresh material. But that’s not a bad thing: ‘Under Great White Northern Lights’ may be nothing more than a collection of hits and covers, but The White Stripes perform with so much passion that fans can’t help but eat this up and crave more.
Published on March 22, 2010 at 12:00 pm
