The White Stripes Elephant Numbered Limited Edition UHQR 200g 45rpm 2LP Box Set

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Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 449/500!

The fourth studio album by the American rock duo the White Stripes was an extraordinary success. It peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard charts and topped the U.K. Albums Charts. To date, it's sold 4 million copies worldwide, achieving platinum-sales certification from the Recording Industry Association of America and 3x platinum from the British Phonographic Industry. It spawned the hit single "Seven Nation Army," the band's signature track that's become a sports anthem, plus the hits "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself," "The Hardest Button to Button" and "There's No Home for You Here." Elephant has received critical acclaim, and it's often cited as the White Stripe's best work, including receiving a nomination for Album of the Year and a win for Best Alternative Music Album at the 46th Grammy Awards in 2004.

Rolling Stone ranked the album No. 449 on its 2020 list of the 500 Best Albums of All Time. The Stripes, it said, exploded out of Detroit with a minimalist garage-blues attack: just Jack White on guitar and Meg White on drums, taking on the world.

To give Elephant the sonic perfection and signature packaging it deserves, Analogue Productions and Third Man Records have teamed up for the ultimate reissue edition. Analogue Productions presents in UHQR format on Clarity Vinyl this rock masterpiece, limited to 10,000 copies. It comes with gold-foil numbered jackets, housed in a premium slipcase with a wooden dowel spine.

Jack and Meg insisted they were a brother and sister, even after people learned they were secretly a divorced couple. But against all odds, the low-budget duo became a global sensation for their sheer rock power. Rolling Stone says Elephant "seethes with raw desperation and lust" in "Seven Nation Army," "Hypnotize," and "The Hardest Button to Button." Jack plays guitar hero in the seven-minute jam "Ball and Biscuit."

More About Clarity Vinyl:

The off-white color of the record you are receiving is the color of raw vinyl in its purest form (un-tinted vinyl). To make the ultimate record, Analogue Productions decided to enhance sound quality by removing potential sources of noise contamination or sonic interference. By not adding traditional carbon black colorant, they eliminate that potential due to carbon black particles, instead allowing your stylus to effortlessly slide down a silky smooth groove wall.

Ryan K. Smith's mastering turns what seemed like a somewhat cold-sounding, aimless production into one imbued with great warmth, soul and charm—without losing any of the production's obvious edge, punky attitude and spare production values. Only after the first UHQR play after many with the earlier versions did I think of Richard and Linda Thompson in the context of The White Stripes and this record. The mastering puts the duo in a space. The acoustic guitars have body, warmth and image convincingly... After the first play, an Elephant UHQR makes complete sense—especially for anyone familiar with the album. Subsequent plays emphasized the point. Which is not to say that the uninitiated are going to immediately drop $150 on it but if you do, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

It's as close as you'll ever get to tape and is one of the most awesome sounding vinyl LPs you'll ever hear. Thunderously good!!

Overall, the Analogue Productions UHQR version of The White Stripes' Elephant sounds like a clear winner to me — especially if you like this album to begin with, and/or adore this group especially. If you are not all that familiar with White Stripes music and are expecting a hard-rock album that sounds as full as Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, The Who, or even Jeff Buckley, you may have to reset your expectations a bit. But once you do so, and you get into spinning the UHQR Elephant with both open mind and open ears, be ready to geek out on loads of vintage-sounding amps and fat guitar tones, hooky riffs, catchy melodies, and ever-pounding drums. The more you play it, the more The White Stripes' Elephant may likely become your jam — and this new Analogue Productions edition of it is worth every penny of the UHQR $150 entry fee.

The UHQR edition of Elephant edges out my other Third Man editions of the album — namely, the 2003 original, the 2013 2LP repressing, and the 2020 2LP edition — for, as good as they essentially are, they all continue to display a few flaws here and there. But, especially in terms of the breadth of the soundstage and balls-out impact of the arrangements and instrumentation on all four sides of dead-quiet, well-centered vinyl, I too feel the UHQR version of The White Stripes' Elephant reigns supreme.

For all the chatter about aural subtleties that only elite audiophiles are able to suss out, I should come right out and say that you don't need Golden Ears to hear the virtues of this remastered wax. The sound Jack White and drummer Meg White sought was gritty, raw, direct, and bold, and that's what the UHQR delivers, with a beefy bottom end and plenty of grit, but I'm never disoriented... The White Stripes knew what they were doing when they recorded Elephant, and because Analogue Productions stayed true to the intentions of the original album, they also got it right. 'Your turntable isn't dead,' Third Man likes to remind people. Play this Elephant and your whole stereo will spring to life.