13 - Elephant (The White Stripes) **** It feels really mean to say since I liked this album a lot but it felt as though the two of them are REALLY good at the basics/fundamental stuff but just don’t deviate too far into stuff that would produce much ‘wow factor’. Ironically, the bluesy parts of this album which were arguably the safest stuff on the album were also my favourite. While I felt that the ‘controlled chaos’ garage vibe of the 2nd track Black Math was very full on at first, I do wish it was maybe a bit more prevalent in the remainder of the album. God I really feel like a jerk for complaining this much about an album that I enjoyed from head to toe with tracks coming in at a ‘good’ at the bare minimum with plenty of diversity in its sound. It’s just a bit harder to highlight the standout elements here aside from the tremendous technical talent on display. To many another cinematic comparison as I have in the past, this reminds me of a lot of Christopher Nolan films of the late 2000’s - 2010’s where his movies are all created with such technical competence that it just feels wrong to not applaud it.