Elephant is the fourth album by the American alternative rock band The White Stripes. Released on April 1, 2003 on V2 Records, the album marks the band's major label debut. Despite this change, Heather Phares of Allmusic believed the album "sounds even more pissed-off, paranoid, and stunning than its predecessor...Darker and more difficult than White Blood Cells." The record garnered extensive critical acclaim and commercial success upon its release, garnering a nomination for Album of the Year and a win for Best Alternative Music Album at the 46th Grammy Awards in 2004, peaking at 6 in the US Billboard charts and topping the UK album charts. In later years the album has often been cited as the White Stripes' best work and one of the best albums of 2000s; Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 390th on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and later, the fifth-best of the decade.
After the White Stripes achieved their mainstream breakthrough, they continued a "back-to-basics", this was reinforced by producing the album without computers, instead utilizing a duct-taped 8 track tape machine and gear no more recent than 1963. Musically, Elephant is a blues and garage rock record featuring lyrics and themes surrounding the "death of the sweetheart" in American and popular culture.
In an interview with Q Magazine in 2007, Jack said about the cover art "If you study the picture carefully, Meg and I are elephant ears in a head-on elephant. But it's a side view of an elephant, too, with the tusks leading off either side." He went on to say, "I wanted people to be staring at this album cover and then maybe two years later, having stared at it for the 500th time, to say, 'Hey, it's an elephant!'".
Elephant peaked at number six on the Billboard 200, topped the UK Albums Chart, and received multiple platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for selling over 4 million copies worldwide. The album's lead single, "Seven Nation Army", became their first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 and one of the band's enduring songs.Elephant is the fourth album by the American alternative rock band The White Stripes. Released on April 1, 2003 on V2 Records, the album marks the band's major label debut. Despite this change, Heather Phares of Allmusic believed the album "sounds even more pissed-off, paranoid, and stunning than its predecessor...Darker and more difficult than White Blood Cells." The record garnered extensive critical acclaim and commercial success upon its release, garnering a nomination for Album of the Year and a win for Best Alternative Music Album at the 46th Grammy Awards in 2004, peaking at 6 in the US Billboard charts and topping the UK album charts. In later years the album has often been cited as the White Stripes' best work and one of the best albums of 2000s; Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 390th on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and later, the fifth-best of the decade.
After the White Stripes achieved their mainstream breakthrough, they continued a "back-to-basics", this was reinforced by producing the album without computers, instead utilizing a duct-taped 8 track tape machine and gear no more recent than 1963. Musically, Elephant is a blues and garage rock record featuring lyrics and themes surrounding the "death of the sweetheart" in American and popular culture.
In an interview with Q Magazine in 2007, Jack said about the cover art "If you study the picture carefully, Meg and I are elephant ears in a head-on elephant. But it's a side view of an elephant, too, with the tusks leading off either side." He went on to say, "I wanted people to be staring at this album cover and then maybe two years later, having stared at it for the 500th time, to say, 'Hey, it's an elephant!'".
Elephant peaked at number six on the Billboard 200, topped the UK Albums Chart, and received multiple platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for selling over 4 million copies worldwide. The album's lead single, "Seven Nation Army", became their first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 and one of the band's enduring songs.false2026-02-08 09:05:45Elephant7.820212021-06-252021-06-2551Alternative RockBlues RockGarage RockGarage Rock RevivalIndie RockPunk BluesRock1114812112914d893539f-e3d9-44e5-92ec-0a45a58dde5211ae9fbb-f3d7-4a47-936f-4c0a04d3b3b5d85b9684-4277-3565-b89b-115c8b4b7fd3/media/data/media5/Music/The White Stripes/Elephant (2003)/folder.jpgThe White StripesThe White Stripes