Elephant by The White Stripes

Elephant, the White Stripes' fourth album, came out on April 1, 2003, on V2 Records in the US and XL Recordings in the UK, and it's the sound of a two-piece garage band hitting like a whole army. Jack White produced it himself, and he and Meg White cut most of it in about two weeks at Toe Rag Studios in April and May 2002, sticking to the back-to-basics blueprint of White Blood Cells (2001). The songs circle around the "death of the sweetheart" in American pop culture, a lament delivered with a snarl.

"Seven Nation Army" leads the charge, a thudding stomp built on a riff so simple a caveman could hum it. From there it's all gloriously scuzzy blues and garage rock: "Black Math" careens, "The Hardest Button to Button" is pure menace-by-drumbeat, "Ball and Biscuit" is a long, lascivious blues grind, and "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" and "In the Cold, Cold Night" slow things to a smoky, heartbroken sway.

It became their biggest seller, reaching number six on the Billboard 200 and number one in the UK, going multi-platinum in several countries and moving more than four million units worldwide. At the 2004 Grammys it won Best Alternative Music Album and was nominated for Album of the Year, and it stands as a key record of the 2000s garage rock revival.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.