Line #42 Music/ElephantAlbum


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/white_stripes_elephant_4438.jpg]]
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3	''Elephant'' is a 2003 album by Music/TheWhiteStripes. It's their fourth record and also their most acclaimed album, most notable for the hit singles "Seven Nation Army" (which won a UsefulNotes/GrammyAward for Best Rock Song and received massive airplay) and "The Hardest Button To Button".
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5	For the recording, Music/JackWhite primarily used vintage, 1960s stereo equipment and completely dissociated himself and Meg from contemporary music during the songwriting process. He captured {{Blues}}, FolkRock, and even some PunkRock influences throughout the album. The album featured Jack White's signature ThreeChordsAndTheTruth style, but also more intricate instrumentality in tracks such as "The Air Near My Fingers" and "There's No Home For You Here". WordOfGod maintains that it's also a loose ConceptAlbum revolving around the death of a so-called American sweetheart, with themes surrounding relationships, depression, and modern life.
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7	----
8	!! Tracklist:
9	# "Seven Nation Army" (3:52)
10	# "Black Math" (3:04)
11	# "There's No Home for You Here" (3:44)
12	# "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" (2:46)
13	# "In the Cold, Cold Night" (2:58)
14	# "I Want to Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother's Heart" (3:21)
15	# "You've Got Her in Your Pocket" (3:40)
16	# "Ball and Biscuit" (7:19)
17	# "The Hardest Button to Button" (3:32)
18	# "Little Acorns" (4:09)
19	# "Hypnotize" (1:48)
20	# "The Air Near My Fingers" (3:40)
21	# "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine" (3:18)
22	# "Well It's True That We Love One Another" (2:43)
23	----
24	!!Well, it's true that we trope one another:
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26	* AlbumClosure: ''Elephant'' is mostly loud and emotionally intense. It ends with "Well, It's True That We Love One Another," a light-hearted strum-along, with vocals swapping between Jack, Meg, and guest vocalist Holly Golightly.
27	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''B'''all And '''B'''iscuit", "The Hardest '''B'''utton To '''B'''utton", "In The '''C'''old '''C'''old Night".
28	* AudienceParticipationSong: "Seven Nation Army".
29	* BadassBoast: These occur in a few of their songs, but "Ball and Biscuit", which is basically 7+ minutes of continual badass boasting, particularly stands out:
30	-->''Right now you could care less about me\
31	But soon enough you'' '''''will''''' ''care by the time I'm done.''
32	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Jack White and Holly Golightly sing a duet in "Well, It's True That We Love One Another" and bicker how they love or don't love one another, to which Meg sings: "Will the two of you cut it out/and tell 'em [the audience] what it's really all about?"
33	* BrokenRecord: "There's no home for you here, girl, go away".
34	* CallToAgriculture: "Seven Nation Army"
35	--> ''I'm going to Wichita, far from this opera forever more\
36	I'm gonna work the straw, make the sweat drip out of every pore''
37	* CoverVersion: The Music/BurtBacharach cover "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself".
38	* DarkerAndEdgier: Sports a much harder rocking sound than the poppy ''Music/WhiteBloodCells''.
39	* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover.
40	* ADogNamedDog: The lyrics in "The Hardest Button to Button" mention the birth of a baby boy that is named "Baby".
41	* DrosteImage: The video for "Seven Nation Army".
42	* EekAMouse: [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/meg_white_barefoot.jpg One of the photos]] in the CD booklet is a close-up of Meg's bare feet as she stands on a chair, recoiling from a mouse on the floor.
43	* EpicRocking: The seven minute long "Ball and Biscuit".
44	* FaceOnTheCover: The band is shown from a distance, full frontal, but still in the center of attention.
45	* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: Much like their other albums, this one solely uses the colors red, white, and black. Look closely: you can also see an image sort of hidden in the picture. See it? No? [[spoiler: It's an elephant]].
46	* Letters2Numbers: Subtly done with the back cover--the E's in the title are actually rendered as backwards 3's.
47	* LetsDuet: "It's True That We Love One Another" is a three-way CallAndResponseSong among Jack, Meg, and English singer Holly Golightly.
48	* MinisculeRocking: "Hypnotize" is under two minutes.
49	* MythologyGag: "It's True That We Love One Another" thrives almost entirely on the UrbanLegend that Jack and Meg are supposedly either brother and sister, married or former lovers, or all of the three? They tease the audience with the confusion.
50	* NonAppearingTitle: "Black Math".
51	* OneWordTitle: ''Elephant'', "Hypnotize".
52	* OverlyLongScream: The baby in "The Hardest Button To Button" sounded like "an earthquake".
53	* PepTalkSong: "Little Acorns". The opening narration talks about a woman who learned to break her problems into smaller pieces in order to enable herself to solve them.
54	* QuarrelingSong: "Well It's True That We Love One Another", where Jack and Holly bicker, while Meg comes in between.
55	* ScienceIsBad: Jack mocks this in "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine", about a woman who puts more faith into unorthodox remedies rather than trust in medical science.
56	* SelfBackingVocalist: "There's No Home For You Here", which features a chorus of backing vocals, all by Jack White.
57	* SelfReferentialHumor: The line in "Ball and Biscuit" that goes "''It might be true that I'm your third man girl/But it's a FACT that I'm the seventh son!''" are references to Jack's record label, Third Man Records, and the fact that he ''is'' the seventh son of his family[[note]]He is the youngest of ten children: three girls, seven boys. While he is the seventh son, he is really the tenth child[[/note]].
58	* SpecialGuest: Holly Golightly during "It's True That We Love One Another". Detroit radio host Mort Krim on "Little Acorns", an homage to Jack's admiration of the man while he was younger.
59	* SpokenWordInMusic: "Little Acorns" has OpeningNarration.
60	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Meg sings "In The Cold, Cold Night".
61	* SternTeacher: Jack speaks out against one in "Black Math":
62	--> ''Mathematically turning the page''\
63	''Unequivocally showing my age''\
64	''I'm practically center stage''\
65	''Undeniably earning your wage''\
66	''Well maybe I'll put my love on ice''\
67	''And teach myself, maybe that'll be nice''
68	* StudioChatter: The end of "It's True That We Love One Another".
69	* TextlessAlbumCover: Except on the Russian release.
70	* ThatOldTimePrescription: Referred to in "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine".
71	-->''Well strip the bark right off a tree\
72	And just hand it this way\
73	Don't even need a drink of water\
74	To make the headache go away.''
75	* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: "Seven Nation Army" especially, but also "I Want to Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother's Heart," "You've Got Her in Your Pocket", and "In the Cold, Cold Night". Considering that Jack used recording equipment from TheSixties, these minimalistic songs make the more complex instrumentals in the album sound more impressive.

Context Music / ElephantAlbum