Pitchfork

Children of all ages, take heart, the rock world is setting up its peppermint tents and making way for Elephant. The White Stripes' full-length follow-up to their commercial breakthrough White Blood Cells is complete and ready to drop on April 15th through V2 Records. The beast has been rumbling in the distance since last September, when Jack posted on the Stripes' official site: "We have finished the making, mixing, and mastering of elephant, but won't let it out of it's cage just yet, it needs to graze on the plains for a minute. perhaps it's not what meg and i think it is, perhaps it's the worst album we've ever made, or perhaps we'll all be surprised. we'll see i suppose, but at the time it was a good feeling, and it may come back and roost forever." (And maybe it will come and step on the Shift key every now and then).

We've can only imagine that the big, wrinkled pachyderm has just been fattening up on peanuts since then, and, we suppose, scooting around on a big striped ball while Jack filmed Cold Mountain and talked to Rolling Stone: "I thought it was going to be quieter, but it ended up being this really intense rock 'n' roll record," said Jack to the mag, which reported that "the album's title alludes to a balance between power and innocence. "Which is like me and Meg's contrast in the band. An elephant has the two of our personalities in one creature," added White. White also revealed to Mojo that "it's kind of a depressing album. The overriding theme is the death of the sweetheart. That romantic idea just can't seem to exist these days. The entire world is wrapped around sexual ideas, it's become so free-thinking that a lot of ideas are lost." The cover will feature Jack and Meg dressed as "old country stars."

Elephant offers a few new twists on the Stripes formula: Jack plays through an octave pedal on some tracks to add a bassline, Meg gets her own song ("In the Cold, Cold Night"), Burt Bacharach is covered, and Thee Headcoats' Holly Golightly guests. Aside from that, don't expect any major overhauls-- the Stripes are heeding their own advice and keeping things "Little Room"-style. The album was recorded during a two-week stint at Liam Watson's Toe Rag studio for a cost of less than $10,000, and using only equipment dated before 1963. It shows. Judging from the advance vinyl (the label is attempting to discourage file-trading by not sending promo CDs), the album is easily as raw as anything the band have laid down yet-- the production is sparse, filled out only by the incredibly dense, heavy guitar and drums sounds, as well as the occasional warm, vintage keyboards, and in one instance, even a reverbed four-part harmony. (More on this in Pitchfork's new daily singles column, Repeat.)

We dressed up a guy like Mr. Peanut and sent him into the wild grasslands in search of a tracklist. In the end, there was nothing left of him but his little monocle, but we got the list. Having run it by the Stripes' publicist for accuracy, here it is, mounted for your viewing pleasure:

01 Seven Nation Army
02 Black Math
03 There's No Home for You Here
04 I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself [Bacharach cover]
05 In the Cold, Cold Night
06 I Want to Be the Boy
07 You've Got Her in Your Pocket
08 Ball and Biscuit
09 The Hardest Button to Button
10 Little Acorns
11 Hypnotize
12 The Air Near My Fingers
13 Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine
14 It's True That We Love One Another [duet with Holly Golightly]