Album reviews: The White Stripes Greatest Hits; Jamie Cullum at Christmas
The White Stripes: Jack and Meg.
Along with The Strokes, The White Stripes were heralded as saviours of rock’n'roll when they burst onto the indie scene some 20 years ago. But with hindsight it is now clear that, rather than saving rock, they represented one final hurrah before the genre was eclipsed, seemingly for good, by pop and hip-hop.
For that reason, this overdue ‘best of’ feels far older than is actually the case. Is it really just two decades since Jack White and his ex-wife Meg rattled the charts with 'Fell In Love With A Girl', 'The Hardest Button to Button' and 'Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground'?
The stand-out is obviously 'Seven Nation Army', the future terrace anthem which gave the duo their biggest hit and which also represented a peak they would never again scale. Not everything here has aged as well: the discordant 'Icky Thump', for instance, deserves its obscurity. But this is nonetheless a refreshing blast from the annals that will lead you on a nostalgic trip back to the era when rock ’n roll actually stood for something.
Not all Christmas records are created equally. Some tap into the complicated feelings we have about the festive season and lay bare the seam of melancholy that often runs through this time of year (examples include Sufjan Stevens’ Songs For Christmas and Wham’s Last Christmas). But then there are albums such as Jamie Cullum’s The Pianoman at Christmas, which feel as comfy as an old cardigan topped off with a novelty Santa hat.
That’s despite the fact that it is mostly a collection of originals. Cullum channels the finger-clicking spirit of Perry Como and Sinatra on Christmas Never Gets Old while gets wonderfully misty-eyed on Christmas Caught Me Crying.
Cheesiness is generally kept at bay. And it is encouraging to hear a crooner stretch themselves beyond the tinsel-bedecked standards (cough, Michael Bublé, cough). This isn’t the most radical Christmas record you’ll hear. Still, Cullum is to be praised for trying something different whilst still delivering comfort and joy by the parcel-load.
