by Heather Phares
White Blood Cells may have been a reaction to the amount of fame the White Stripes had received up to the point of its release, but, paradoxically, it made full-fledged rock stars out of Jack and Meg White and sold over half a million copies in the process. Despite the White Stripes' ambivalence, fame nevertheless seems to suit them: They just become more accomplished as the attention paid to them increases. Elephant captures this contradiction within the Stripes and their music; it's the first album they've recorded for a major label, and it sounds even more pissed-off, paranoid, and stunning than its predecessor. Darker and more difficult than White Blood Cells, the album offers nothing as immediately crowd-pleasing or sweet as &Fell in Love With a Girl& or &We're Going to Be Friends,& but it's more consistent, exploring disillusionment and rejection with razor-sharp focus. Chip-on-the-shoulder anthems like the breathtaking opener, &Seven Nation Army,& which is driven by Meg White's explosively minimal drumming, and &The Hardest Button to Button,& in which Jack White snarls &Now we're a family!& -- one of the best oblique threats since Black Francis sneered &It's educational!& all those years ago -- deliver some of the fiercest blues-punk of the White Stripes' career. &There's No Home for You Here& sets a girl's walking papers to a melody reminiscent of &Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground& (though the result is more sequel than rehash), driving the point home with a wall of layered, Queen-ly harmonies and piercing guitars, while the inspired version of &I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself& goes from plaintive to angry in just over a minute, though the charging guitars at the end sound perversely triumphant. At its bruised heart, Elephant portrays love as a power struggle, with chivalry and innocence usually losing out to the power of seduction. &I Want to Be the Boy& tries, unsuccessfully, to charm a girl's mother; &You've Got Her in Your Pocket,& a deceptively gentle ballad, reveals the darker side of the Stripes' vulnerability, blurring the line between caring for someone and owning them with some fittingly fluid songwriting. ... Read More...