Elephant (album)

''Elephant'' is the fourth studio album by the American rock duo The White Stripes, released on April 1, 2003, by V2, XL, and Third Man. The album was produced by the band's guitarist and lead vocalist Jack White, and continues their "back-to-basics" approach as seen in their previous album, ''White Blood Cells'' (2001). It was mostly recorded at Maida Vale and Toe Rag Studios across two weeks in April 2002, and was produced without the use of computers, instead utilizing a duct-taped 8 track tape machine and various gear no more recent than 1963.

''Elephant'' peaked at number six on the ''Billboard'' 200 and topped the UK Albums Chart. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) have certified the album 2× Platinum and 3× Platinum respectively, and over 4 million copies have been sold worldwide. The album spawned the hit singles " The Hardest Button to Button" and "Seven Nation Army", the latter of which became a sports anthem and has continued to experience commercial success. "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" and " There's No Home for You Here" were also released as singles.

''Elephant'' received widespread acclaim from music critics, and became a defining event of the 2000s garage rock revival. The band earned several accolades for the album, including a nomination for Album of the Year and winning Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Song ("Seven Nation Army") at the 2004 Grammy Awards. It has since been regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 21st century and was ranked number 449 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's 2020 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Recording

The White Stripes recorded ''Elephant'' over two weeks in April through May 2002 in London's modest Toe Rag Studios except for the songs "Well It's True That We Love One Another" and "Hypnotize", which were recorded at Toe Rag in November 5, 2001, and "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself", which was recorded at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios on November 7, 2001. On certain releases, "Hypnotize" was mistakenly marked as recorded in April 2002., user=The White Stripes , postid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng%3D%3D , date=18 March 2023
/ref> Most of these recording dates were corrected on the 20th anniversary release., user=The White Stripes , postid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng%3D%3D , date=18 March 2023
/ref>

Jack produced the album with antiquated equipment, including an eight-track tape machine and pre-1960s recording gear.Fridge, David (April 17, 2003)
"Living Color"
''Rolling Stone''. (920): 102 As stated in the liner notes, he did not use computers during ''Elephant'' writing, recording, or production, and none of the recording equipment was more recent than 1963.Katchen, Andrew (March 29, 2003), "White Stripes Stay Pure on 'Elephant'". ''Billboard''. 115(13):9Various artists (November 1, 2007), "The White Stripes Elephant". ''The Mojo Collection—The Ultimate Music Companion'' (4th Edition). Canongate Books.Cameron, Keith (March 28, 2003)
"The sweetheart deal"
''The Guardian''. Retrieved December 12, 2014.

For the track "Seven Nation Army", to replicate a bass-like sound, White connected a semi-acoustic guitar to a DigiTech Whammy pedal (a pitch shift effect), lowering the pitch by an octave. " There's No Home for You Here" was made with the idea "to see how far we could go with an eight track recorder, and I think how far we went is too far."

Meg White is featured for the first time on leading vocals in the track " In the Cold, Cold Night", having only performed background vocals for ''De Stijl'' and ''White Blood Cells'' previously. Including the song "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (a Dusty Springfield/Burt Bacharach cover) in their repertoire was Meg's idea, and the band had begun to perform the song live, later recording it for the album.Phipps, Keith (April 9, 2003)
"The White Stripes"
AVClub.com. Retrieved October 24, 2014.

Composition

''Elephant'' has been described musically as garage rock revival, blues rock, and punk blues. In this album, the White Stripes expanded their style with a bass line alongside lead and rhythm guitar. Jack played guitar or keyboard to fill out the sound. Like other White Stripes records, the cover art and liner notes are exclusively in red, white, and black. An article in ''The New York Times'' reported the band attempted to achieve the idea of "Back to Basics" and encourage other rockers to try the same; this was a concept seen on their previous album, ''White Blood Cells'' (2001). The album's lyrical themes revolve around the idea of the "death of the sweetheart" in American culture.

"You've Got Her in Your Pocket" was written after the release of the band's self-titled debut album (1999). Jack had planned on eventually giving it to a local band to cover, but felt it was too personal to give away and recorded it for the album. "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine" was originally written for ''White Blood Cells'', but it was removed on Meg's request, who found the lyrics to be problematic. After a line was omitted, the song was rerecorded for ''Elephant''. "Little Acorns" was written after the band had found unused tapes of journalist Mort Crim in a recording studio. Crim said in an interview that "My first thought was, well they're just gonna use the words and he's gonna build a song around the words, but then the producer said, 'no, no, no, we want to use your voice. We want to actually build a song around your commentary.'" The resulting song is about persevering through life's hardships, and draws comparisons to a "squirrel storing nuts in the winter".

Artwork

In an interview with ''Q Magazine'' in 2007, Jack said, "If you study the picture carefully, Meg and I are elephant ears in a head-on elephant. But it's a side view of an elephant, too, with the tusks leading off either side." He went on to say, "I wanted people to be staring at this album cover and then maybe two years later, having stared at it for the 500th time, to say, 'Hey, it's an elephant!'"

The cryptic symbolism of the album art includes a skull sitting on the floor in the background, as well as peanuts and peanut shells in the foreground, and on the circus travel trunk appears the mark "III," Jack's signature. Jack is displaying a mano cornuta and looking at a light bulb intensely, while Meg is barefoot and appears to be crying, with a rope tied around her ankle and leading out of frame. Both have small white ribbons tied to their fingers. On the reverse side of the U.S. edition, all of the number "3"s are in red (disregarding the authorization notes at the bottom).

The album has been released with at least six different versions of the front cover—different covers for the CD and LP editions in the US, the UK and elsewhere. On the US CD edition, Meg is sitting on the left of a circus travel trunk and Jack is sitting on the right holding a cricket bat over the ground, while on the UK CD edition, the cricket bat touches the ground and the image is mirrored so that their positions on the trunk are reversed. The UK vinyl album cover is the same as the US CD, but differs in that the color hues are much darker. The Record Store Day 2013 vinyl and August 2013 180-gram black vinyl reissues have Meg wearing a black dress instead of the usual white dress; the only other release with Meg wearing the black dress was on the V2 advanced copy back in 2003. The advanced copy was on red and white vinyl, while the RSD copy has red, black and white colored vinyl in 2013. A 20th anniversary limited edition has Jack wearing all white similar to the limited 2003 Australian pressing.

The cover of ''Elephant'' has become iconic, and appeared on ''Billboard'''s list of "The 100 Best Album Covers of All Time".

Release

On January 28th, 2003, three months before its release, the tracklist for ''Elephant'' was announced to ''NME'', and the album was given to the newspaper for an early exclusive review on March 7, 2003. ''Elephant'' was then widely released on April 1, 2003, through V2, XL, and Third Man records, their second album to be released by V2. To promote the album, four tracks were released as singles: "Seven Nation Army", "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself", "The Hardest Button to Button", and "There's No Home For You Here".

''Elephant'' has continued to be reissued. In 2013, Third Man Records released a limited edition vinyl reissue of ''Elephant'', in celebration of the album's 10-year anniversary, which were pressed at United Record Pressing in Nashville, TN. In January 2023, a mono remix of the album, titled ''Elephant XX'', was announced and later released exclusively through Third Man Records. In March of that same year, an ''Elephant'' deluxe edition was released, which includes live recordings from a performance in Chicago's Aragon Ballroom.

Reception and legacy

Reviews

Upon its release, ''Elephant'' received widespread acclaim from music critics. Review aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalized score of 92 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". As of 2023, ''Elephant'' is the White Stripes' highest-rated album on the site. It was nominated for Best Album at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2003, and won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2004. ''Elephant'' has been hailed by critics as one of the defining events of the 2000s garage rock revival. Many reviewers believed that it outdid the energy of their earlier albums, and considered it equal to or better than ''White Blood Cells''.

''AllMusic'' critic Heather Phares said the album "overflows with quality". Alexis Petridis of ''The Guardian'' called the album their "apotheosis" and wrote that "the White Stripes' music seems almost elemental, their power undeniable: it is clear why they are the only band to have transcended the indie ghetto." Lorraine Ali of ''Newsweek'' criticized the "gimmicks" that surrounded the White Stripes' music, but concluded that "''Elephant'' still sounds great." John Mulvey of ''NME'' stated that "The eloquence, barbarism, tenderness and sweat-drenched vitality of ''Elephant'' make it the most realised White Stripes album yet." Tim Alves of ''PopMatters'' said the album cemented "their evolution from Blind Willie McTell cover band with a pop sensibility to full-fledged, honest-to-goodness rock 'n' roll gods." David Fricke of ''Rolling Stone'' called ''Elephant'' "a work of pulverizing perfection," and believed it exceeded "the plantation holler of 2000's ''De Stijl'' and 2001's ''White Blood Cells'' with blues that both pop and bleed". ''Uncut'' magazine remarked that "''Elephant'' is where the tabloid phenomenon of summer 2001 prove they are no flash in the pan by making a truly phenomenal record." Jon Pareles'' praised the continuation of their "Back to Basics" style, but felt that "the quest—for something that might as well be called heart—is still ahead of them."

"Seven Nation Army" was the standout song of the album, acclaimed for its "ubiquitous" riff and drumbeat and becoming a stadium chant. "The Hardest Button to Button" earned praise from publications such as ''Far Out'' and '' Rough Trade'', and spawned an acclaimed music video directed by Michel Gondry. " Ball and Biscuit" was described by Kitty Empire of ''The Observer'' as "astonishing" and David Malitz of ''The Washington Post'' called it their "definitive statement"; it was voted the best Jack White song by readers of ''Rolling Stone'' "by a landslide" even though it was never released as a single. The tracks "Black Math" and "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine" were called "sonic ferocities" by Ron Hart of ''Spin''. Meg's vocals on " In the Cold, Cold Night" were deemed "sweet and tender" and "magnetic" by Hart and Tom Breihan of ''Stereogum'', respectively.

In March 2003, a month before its release, ''NME'' ranked ''Elephant'' at 74 on their list of the "100 Best Albums of All Time", and in 2013, the same publication ranked it at 116 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2013. ''Rolling Stone'' called it one of the best albums of the decade, and placed it at 390 on their 2012 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time and at 449 in the 2020 edition. It was included in the book ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die''.(2003)
100 Greatest Albums
. Channel 4. Retrieved September 11, 2007

Rankings

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.

The White Stripes
* Jack White – vocals, guitar, piano, production, mixing
* Meg White – drums, vocals

Guest personnel
* Mort Crim – vocal
* Holly Golightly – vocal

Production
* Liam Watson – engineering, mixing
* Noel Summerville – mastering

Artwork
* Bruce Brand – layout
* "The Third Man" – artwork
* Patrick Pantano – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Notes

References

Further reading

*

External links

*
Elephant
' at Discogs
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elephant
The White Stripes albums
2003 albums
V2 Records albums
XL Recordings albums
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
Albums produced by Jack White
Third Man Records albums