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The issue of Elephant (album) is an issue that has captured the attention of academics, scientists, and enthusiasts alike. Elephant (album) has long been the subject of debate and study, and its importance has transcended various disciplines. Over the years, it has been possible to see how Elephant (album) has evolved and adapted to changes in society and technology. In this article, we will explore the roots and contemporary impact of Elephant (album), as well as possible implications for the future.
Elephant is the fourth studio album by the American rock duo The White Stripes. It was released on April 1, 2003, through V2, XL, and Third Man records. The majority of the album was recorded across two weeks in April 2002 and produced without the use of computers, instead utilizing an eight-track tape machine and various gear no more recent than 1963.
Elephant received widespread critical acclaim, and it is often cited as the White Stripes' best work. The album earned several accolades, including a nomination for Album of the Year and winning Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Song for "Seven Nation Army" at the 46th Grammy Awards. In 2012, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 390th on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and additionally ranked it the fifth-best album of the 2000s decade. Authors and reviewers have praised Elephant as one of the best albums of the 21st century.
Recording
Elephant was recorded 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 13, 2001. Jack White produced the album with antiquated equipment, including an eight-track tape machine and pre-1960s recording gear. As stated in the liner notes, White did not use computers during Elephant's writing, recording, or production, and none of the recording equipment was more recent than 1963.
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. "You've Got Her in Your Pocket" was a song that had been written by Jack soon after the band's debut album was released in 1999. He had planned on eventually giving it to a local band to cover, but ultimately felt it was too personal to give away and decided to include it in the album. "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine" was originally written for the band's previous album, White Blood Cells, but Meg had disliked the song, finding the lyrics to be problematic, and it was removed. After debating it, the song was rerecorded and included in Elephant. Jack removed a line from the song that he felt was too harsh. "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 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. On certain releases, "Hypnotize" was mistakenly marked as recorded in April 2002.
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. According to a review in The New York Times, the White Stripes attempted to achieve the idea of "Back to Basics" as well as encouraging other rockers to try the same way. The album's lyrical themes revolve around the idea of the "death of the sweetheart" in American culture.
Artwork
In an interview with Q Magazine in 2007, Jack White 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 White's signature. Jack White is also displaying a mano cornuta and looking at a light bulb intensely, while Meg White 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. To give an example, on the US CD edition Meg White 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.
A 20th anniversary limited edition has Jack wearing all white similar to the limited 2003 Australian pressing. This reissue also corrects recording dates of songs. 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.
Release
Elephant was released on April 1, 2003, through V2, XL, and Third Man records; it was their second album to be released by V2 records. 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.
Upon its release, Elephant received widespread acclaim from music critics. Review aggregating website Metacritic reports a 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. The White Stripes were gaining momentum with their previous three albums and were generally lauded in critical circles, and many critics hailed Elephant as one of the defining events of the 2000s garage rock revival. They went on to play two summer concerts with the Rolling Stones, a sold-out gig at the venerable Radio City Music Awards and at Madison Square Garden.
David Fricke of Rolling Stone called Elephant "a work of pulverizing perfection," adding, "It will be one of the best things you hear all year" and that White matched the energy from his earlier albums, thought to even " 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."AllMusic said the album "overflows with quality".NME noted that "The eloquence, barbarism, tenderness and sweat-drenched vitality of Elephant make it the most fully-realised White Stripes album yet."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."Robert Christgau initially gave the album a three-star honorable mention upon release, but later admitted that he had underrated it, and gave it a new grade of A−. The "gimmicks" that surrounded the White Stripes' music—particularly their insistence on being called siblings—were criticized by Lorraine Ali of Newsweek, although she concluded that "Elephant still sounds great."
"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", "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" and "There's No Home for You Here" were released as singles and enjoyed commercial success; "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.
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
Notes
^The original cover features Meg in a white dress. This version of the album cover was released in 2003, and used again in 2020 for digital re-issues.
^First released to US alternative radio on August 11, 2003.
^"CG: the white stripes". RobertChristgau.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2007. Retrieved April 2, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ abDimery, Robert; Lydon, Michael (March 23, 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN978-0-7893-2074-2.
^"NME's 100 Best Albums of All Time!". NME: 30. March 8, 2003.