Elephant (20th Anniversary)＜完全生産限定盤/Colored Vinyl＞

2003年発売 ザ・ホワイト・ストライプスの代表作『エレファント』 発売20周年記念の限定カラー・ヴァイナルを発売

2002年4月にロンドンのToe Rag Studiosで2週間をかけてレコーディングされ、2003年4月1日にリリースされたザ・ホワイト・ストライプス4枚目のスタジオ・アルバム『エレファント』は、USビルボードのアルバム・チャートで最高位6位を記録。2004年グラミー賞の「最優秀オルタナティブ・アルバム賞」を受賞し、「年間最優秀アルバム賞」にもノミネートされるなど、世界中で大ヒットを記録し、彼らの代表作となった。
アルバム収録曲「セヴン・ネイション・アーミー」はグラミー賞の「最優秀ロック・ソング賞」を受賞。同曲はスポーツ・アンセムとして今日も世界各国のスタジアムで使用され続けている。今年でアルバム発売から20周年を迎えるにあたり、限定2枚組カラー・ヴァイナルを発売。
LP1の盤面はレッド・スモーク、LP2がクリア・ウィズ・レッド&ブラック・スモークとなっている。

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. The battle for control reaches a fever pitch on the "Fell in Love With a Girl"-esque "Hypnotize," which suggests some slightly underhanded ways of winning a girl over before settling for just holding her hand, and on the show-stopping "Ball and Biscuit," seven flat-out seductive minutes of preening, boasting, and amazing guitar prowess that ranks as one the band's most traditionally bluesy (not to mention sexy) songs. Interestingly, Meg's star turn, "In the Cold, Cold Night," is the closest Elephant comes to a truce in this struggle, her kitten-ish voice balancing the song's slinky words and music. While the album is often dark, it's never despairing; moments of wry humor pop up throughout, particularly toward the end. "Little Acorns" begins with a sound clip of Detroit newscaster Mort Crim's Second Thoughts radio show, adding an authentic, if unusual, Motor City feel. It also suggests that Jack White is one of the few vocalists who could make a lyric like "Be like the squirrel" sound cool and even inspiring. Likewise, the showy "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine" -- on which White resembles a garage rock snake-oil salesman -- is probably the only song featuring the word "acetaminophen" in its chorus. "It's True That We Love One Another," which features vocals from Holly Golightly as well as Meg White, continues the Stripes' tradition of closing their albums on a lighthearted note. Almost as much fun to analyze as it is to listen to, Elephant overflows with quality -- it's full of tight songwriting, sharp, witty lyrics, and judiciously used basses and tumbling keyboard melodies that enhance the band's powerful simplicity (and the excellent "The Air Near My Fingers" features all of these). Crucially, the White Stripes know the difference between fame and success; while they ma to be continued...

近年の原初的なロックンロール回帰風潮のなかで脚光を浴びた紅白姉弟デュオの4作目。相変わらずアイデア豊かなコンビネーションと凶悪なインテリジェンスで、気持ち良く針をレッドゾーンに振り切ってくれる。ベックが彼らの前作を昨年のベストに選んだそうだが、考え抜いて自分の音楽をやるベックからしたら、それこそ姉弟間の〈テレパシー〉にも似た交感作用と、ギター／ドラム／歌という最小限の設定だからこそナチュラルに醸し出され、聴く者を巻き込んでしまうこの〈レア〉なグルーヴ感には、嫉妬を覚えざるを得ないのだろう。バート・バカラックのカヴァー“I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself”は、かつてエルヴィス・コステロも歌った必殺の一曲。それにしても、この2人。ほかのデトロイトの連中にはない、50年代のガレージR&Bからワープしたような、生臭い匂いがするのが本当に魅力的だ。
bounce (C)松永良平