Todd Vanderwerff

Elephant, the new album from The White Stripes, is like the second coming of garage rock-again. It throbs and pulsates with something epic inside of it. It sounds like Leadbelly, Led Zeppelin, the Sex Pistols and the Beatles had a love child. It sounds marvelous.

The Stripes’ earlier albums were roots rock at its finest. Now, they seem to have let those roots take hold and they’ve begun to explore their sound. You’re not going to hear many songs better than “Seven Nation Army,” “I Want to Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother’s Heart” or any of the other tracks on this album anytime soon.

Elephant isn’t perfect. It has a few too many songs and the Stripes get a little too enamored of their own cleverness at times, but when it’s on, it’s one of the best rock albums in years.

4.5 stars