The White Stripes "De Stijl" 2000*****

1917 marks (among other important anniversaries) the centennial of the art movement "De Stijl". It's celebrated all year throughout The Netherlands, but especially in my neighbouring city of The Hague which has caught De Stijl fever. lots of exhibitions and happenings going on, with many shop owners joining in and decorating their windows in the famous Mondriaan rectangular style. The movement's theoretician  Theo van Doesburg explained it as moving away from "the individual" (seen as the essence of "old" art as well as the cause of society's evils, World War I being the prime one) towards the "universal". By eliminating the influence of the artist's personality and stripping everything down to geometrical shapes and primary colours, one is supposed to reach an abstract, mathematical, universal truth and provide a common reference and unity of all nations and people. In reality there wasn't even enough common ground between The Style's leaders: they famously had a falling out because of the diagonal line: Mondriaan viewed it as an abomination while van Doesburg thought it provided an essential dynamic to the stillness of the horizontal and vertical compositions. 

Despite its short lifespan and regional character (an almost exclusively Dutch phenomenon) De Stijl has had an enduring influence that transcended the visual arts, spreading out to architecture and design - and even, unexpectedly on the dawn of the 21st century, rock music. A young -then unknown- band from Detroit called The White Stripes had found an aesthetic kinship between the simple forms of De Stijl and their own minimalist approach to rock music. The real-life couple (sometimes posing as siblings) of Jack and Meg White fashioned its sound from the most basic ingredients, usually just his guitar and voice and her drums - incidentally White is Meg's surname which the former Jack Gillis assumed after their marriage and kept after their divorce (kinda like Tina Turner). This kind of sparse instrumentation is expected by acoustic folk duos but The White Stripes also served some of the century's biggest hard rock riffs, garage noise, revamped blues, teen pop and country ballads, all in their uniquely distinctive style. Relistening to this album, I was reminded of their range: from the Beatles/Kinks pop of "You're Pretty Good Looking [For A Girl]" and "Apple Blossom", country ballads of "A Boy's Best Friend", "Sister, Do You Know My Name?" (with Ry Cooder-ish slide guitar), and Woody Guthry folk of "Your Southern Can Is Mine" - actually a Blind Willie McTell song from 1931. 

The acoustic "I'm Bound To Pack It Up" and crunchy rock of "Why Can't You Be Nicer To Me?" benefit from a few melodic lines played by guest violinist Paul Henry Ossy. There's also the noisy psychobilly of "Let's Build A Home" and "Jumble Jumble" and spaghetti western guitar and Supertramp(!)like piano of "Truth Doesn't Make A Noise". And, of course, the band's speciality: bluesy hard rock a la Led Zeppelin with low fi garage production. "Hello Operator" combines a monster riff a la AC/DC with blues harmonica, while "Little Bird" and Son House's "Death Letter" are almost like listening to Led Zeppelin with Ringo on the drums instead of John Bonham. Despite the obvious Jimmy Page influences, Jack White proves his greatness by devising and perfecting his own expressive style instead of obsessing over technique and speed. It'd bring him fame and fortune later, with "7 Nation Army" becoming an instant classic. It is a road started here: while their lo-fi debut showed promise, it is with De Stijl that White Stripes perfected the formula they'd stick to during their career, from the music down to the visual style of its cover.

***** for Hello Operator, Death Letter, 

**** for You're Pretty Good Looking [For A Girl], Little Bird, Apple Blossom, I'm Bound To Pack It Up, Truth Doesn't Make A Noise, Let's Build A Home, Why Can't You Be Nicer To Me?, Your Southern Can Is Mine

*** for Sister Do You Know My Name?, A Boy's Best Friend, Jumble Jumble