Bears and Bullets: Bears and Bullets Top Ten Albums of the Decade

#6: White Blood Cells - The White Stripes

Here's an argument waiting to happen; Jack White was the most important musical figure of the decade. The brainchild behind The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, White is an archetypal rock n' roll visionary whose talents are almost limitless, and if he isn't the decade's most prominent musical force, who is?

That discussion starts with White Blood Cells. After their eponymous debut in the late 90's and second album De Stijl, the Detroit duo of Jack and sister/wife/friend Meg White re-released White Blood Cells on major label V2 Records (before moving a couple more times) a year after its initial release. The result, heard clearly, was a more polished and crowning record that still inhibited the gnarling and exhilarating aesthetics of their previous two albums, while (with the help of Michel Gondry) catapulting them into the mainstream discussion.

"Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground," is proud, jolting stomp that starts the record before it leaps into the alt-country pop fixture of "Hotel Yorba," and shortly there after to the two-minute garage punk romp of "Fell in Love With a Girl." After the first four songs you're exhausted, but still clenching your nails for more and more. Rarely does the beginning of a record say so much about a band and leaves the listener gasping - and that's just the start.

The following White Stripes records - Elephant, Get Behind Me Satan and Icky Thump - for all their glory and prowess, leaps from the band's original form. That's not saying that their newer material doesn't compare with their early work, it's just that their early work was that good.

The White Stripes - Fell in Love With a Girl