The White Stripes: Elephant 2LP Vinyl

Why you'll love it

This Third Man 2LP set comes in a glossy gatefold with printed inner sleeves full of photos, lyrics and credits. Elephant topped the UK Albums Chart, reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.

This edition

2LP set
Gatefold jacket
Printed inner sleeves with lyrics
Pressed in the EU
Download card included

About the album

Jack and Meg White could have made Elephant anywhere once White Blood Cells took off. They chose Toe Rag Studios in Hackney, a London room Jack described as claustrophobically cramped and freezing, with a radiator that barely worked. That was the point. With engineer Liam Watson, they cut the album to eight-track tape in about two weeks in the spring of 2002. "Hypnotize" and "It's True That We Love One Another" came from an earlier visit in November 2001.

"Seven Nation Army" opens the record with the riff that went on to conquer the world's sports grounds. "Black Math" and "The Hardest Button to Button" are garage rock at full pelt, "Ball and Biscuit" is a long, swaggering blues, and the Bacharach and David cover "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself," taped at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios, turns a 60s ballad into a howl.

It sold more than four million copies, the duo's biggest, and many critics still call it their masterpiece. The band said the cold studio kept them focused. We tried the same approach in our back office one winter, and it mostly just kept us cold.

Also at Kops: more The White Stripes on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Side A
1. Seven Nation Army
2. Black Math
3. There's No Home For You Here

Side B
1. I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
2. In The Cold, Cold, Night
3. I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart
4. You've Got Her In Your Pocket

Side C
1. Ball And Biscuit
2. The Hardest Button To Button
3. Little Acorns

Side D
1. Hypnotize
2. The Air Near My Fingers
3. Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine
4. It's True That We Love One Another