Stripes' latest boasts bigger, better sound

The White Stripes have made their triumphant return after the breakthrough success of White Blood Cells with the infinitely entertaining, Elephant. The album, recorded in just two weeks at a London studio equipped with little more than an eight-track and other archaic recording duds, is a rollicking gem.\nThe Detroit duo comprised of singer/guitarist Jack White and his ex-wife, drummer Meg, fully fleshes-out its eclectic influences into a cohesive whole. Elephant is equal measures Muddy Waters and Led Zeppelin. Driven primarily by Jack's snarling vocals and crunchy guitar riffs and Meg's sonic backbeat, the strings and snares formula is occasionally offset by lilting piano lines hammered-out by Jack himself. Elephant is, at least from what I've heard, The White Stripes' most accomplished album to date.\nElephant kicks off with the hellacious one-two punch of "Seven Nation Army" and "Black Math." The former serves as one of the greatest album openers in an awfully long time. It's a simplistically catchy, pissed-off, fist-pumping anthem propelled by Meg's minimalist drumming and Jack's playful bass line. "Black Math" harnesses the energy established in the first track, and runs rampant with it through a sea of distortion and hyperactive, gnarly guitar solos. This segues into the Queen-esque "There's No Home For You Here" cut from a similar template as "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" from White Blood Cells. A stirring cover of Burt Bacharach's ballad, "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself," reveals, much like the duo's other material, an interesting dichotomy between pseudo-ironic bubblegum pop and bluesy punk, freely alternating between tenderness and viciousness with equal aplomb.\nLater highlights include Meg's pixie-ish lead vocal turn on "In the Cold, Cold Night," which is nothing more than a short, simple, slinky little number. The pessimistic, back-to-back balladry of "I Want to Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother's Heart" and "You've Got Her in Your Pocket," both lend Elephant a sense of romanticism, but also hint at a darker vulnerability lingering at the Stripes' fringes. "Ball and Biscuit" is seven minutes of pure, unadulterated, hypersexual blues, which serves as a more than ample vehicle for Jack's pyrotechnic fingering. This could quite possibly be the bluesiest track the duo's laid down yet. \n"The Hardest Button to Button," while repetitive in concept, is an ingenious bombast driven by Meg's incessant kick-drum. "Hypnotize" is to Elephant what "Fell in Love With a Girl" was to White Blood Cells -- catchy and sure to be a hit single. \nThe only drawbacks come in the form of the half-baked parody, "Little Acorns," out of place snippets of Detroit radio personality Mort Crim and the album itself simply not being long enough. Elephant brims with quality songwriting, witty lyrics and sharp yet unrestrained musicianship -- it's far darker than its predecessor, and benefits greatly from being so. The pop sheen employed masks overarching themes of cynicism, allowing Elephant to be an album enjoyed by the masses as well as purveyors of good taste.