Does the latest offering from the Detroit duo live up to the hype? HECK YEAH!!!!!

“Digital recording devices are the devil’s handiwork. They hollow out the talent of people and make them sound like mumbling robots. Kills their creativity. It makes the recordings totally lifeless, without soul. Jennifer Lopez’s latest hit single was written by 12 people and recorded by five producers and it consists of only Pro Tools and machines and those things have nothing to do with making music. That is not music. That is a [bleeping] computer program. It’s a bunch of scientists trying to create something to make us feel good, they could just as well be making drugs or a computer game or…”

That is the opinion that Jack White, guitarist and singer for the White Stripes, had to offer on the current state of pop music in a recent interview. It pretty much sums up the mood of their fourth album, Elephant. It’s interesting that no equipment used to make this album was made after 1963, and no computers were used in the recording or mastering process. It doesn’t exactly make it retro, but it does give it that simplistic touch. In the liner notes, Jack writes that the album is about the death of a loved one, and the album does have the dark tone to back that statement up.

Though they distance themselves from the mainstream, the Detroit duo has had the same problems as some popular artists. Sending out promotional copies of the album only on vinyl didn’t help curb bootlegging as the record company had hoped, so they moved the release date up to April 1st instead of the 15th. I promised myself I wouldn’t download the whole album before its release, but I had too much curiosity, so I had to grab a couple tracks. One was “Seven Nation Army,” the first single and album opener. It starts out with a bass line – actually a guitar played through an octave pedal – and a thumping drumbeat, which then goes into an explosive chorus similar to a spy movie theme.

Another track I heard before the release was “In the Cold, Cold, Night.” This is the first song by the Stripes in which drummer Meg White comes from behind the drum kit and sings up front. In some early reviews of the album, she has been compared to Nico, who was famous for singing with the Velvet Underground. The song definitely has a tone that brings you back to some smoky 50’s beatnik lounge. It consists mainly of Jack’s guitar and organ, making the song as minimalist as you can get.

The whole album has a lot of the same Stripey goodness, yet there is some evolution in the way that Jack and Meg make music. For example, they still love the blues, as evident in tracks like “Ball and Biscuit.” The song is about seven minutes long, their longest ever, but delivers the same garage-blues sound as they have on their previous albums. On the other side of the spectrum, you have “There’s No Home For You Here,” which features some vocal experiments with Jack White’s voice, making it sound almost like a Queen song. The song is almost a redone version of the White Blood Cells single, “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.”

I think it was Justin Timberlake who once said that it would take something 10 times greater than Nirvana to shake the pop industry. Well Justin, this is it. 5 stars. A+. Two thumbs up. This is by far the best rock record since Radiohead’s OK Computer. The hype is true. If you are even the least bit open-minded about music, go and buy this album… Before it buys you.