Additional personnel: Suzy Lee (slide guitar).

Recorded at Ghetto Recorders, Cass Corridor, Detroit, Michigan in January 1999.

Personnel: Jack White (vocals, guitar, piano); Johnny Walker (slide guitar); Meg White (drums).

Recording information: Cass Corridor, Detroit, MI (1999); Ferdinand St., Detroit, MI (1999); Ghetto Recorders, Detroit, MI (1999); Third Man Studios, Southwest Detroit (1999).

Arranger: The White Stripes.

Who knew such a stripped down sound, recorded on a tight budget, could deliver such a powerful rock & roll record? The White Stripes, a "brother and sister" guitar-and-drum duo from Detroit, here accomplish the seemingly impossible. Their debut record incorporates the sounds of classic bands such as Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and the Kinks, merging them with the subterranean sounds of early '60s Texas punk. The result is a rock & roll disc crackling with a kind of dysfunctional energy.

The band's original compositions, including the EXILE ON MAIN STREET-styled "Sugar Never Tasted So Good," the surf-rocker "Astro," and the overdriven screamer, "The Big Train Killed My Baby," are all first-rate garage rockers. But on THE WHITE STRIPES, it's the well-chosen covers--a phenomenal reading of Bob Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee," and a blistering version of Robert Johnson's "Stop Breaking Down"--that truly shine.