15. Jack White - 'Three Women': This is the biggest departure White has made away from the bare bones approach to performing which proved so effective with The White Stripes. Live, he's seen to switch to a piano in ensemble with organ, mandolin, slide guitar, and bass. The result is a boozy throwback to the blues tradition of wildly singing your heart out at a piano. Tom Waits would be proud.
14.The Dead Weather - 'Treat Me Like Your Mother': The Dead Weather is a super group co-fronted by Jack White and Alison Mosshart of The Kills, and also features members of Queens Of The Stone Age and The Raconteurs. 'Treat Me Like Your Mother' is the second single released from their debut album Horehound. This track shows White is just as good at writing hard-edged, mosh-pit inducing rock tracks as he is subtle, poignant love songs.
13. The White Stripes - 'Icky Thumb': White's ability to push boundaries in the recording process is shown here. He eccentrically mixes bagpipes with distorted guitars to create a foot-stomping garage rock anthem. It's also a regular feature in his live set as a solo artist now. It applies the formula that The White Stripes mange so well: irresistible guitar riffery, a highly-cranked bass drum, and an offbeat Captain Beefheart-esque vocal.
12. The Raconteurs - 'Steady As She Goes': Taken from their 2006 debut Steady Boy Soldiers 'Steady As She Goes' became an indie-dance floor filler and reached No.10 in the UK charts. It stands out not only among Jack Whites back catalogue but also against everything released in 2006. It was pipped only by Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy' to the gong of best track of 2006 in Rolling Stone Magazine.
11. Jack White - 'Love Interruption': Jack White shows a metaphorical prowess in songwriting here. The words "I want love to stick a knife inside me and twist it all around" say more in one line than most love songs manage in three minutes. As with all of Jack White's songs it's difficult to decipher whether he's speaking from personal experience or not, nevertheless, he throws his all into it. It's powerful stuff that Morrissey would be proud of, and anyone who's experienced heartbreak will easily connect with it.
10. The White Stripes - 'Hotel Yorba': A 2-minute breathless garage rock smash hit that live induces a frenzy. It also leaves you with that sense that not all great songwriters died at 27 and we still have a great in our midst. Footage of this played at The Empress Ballroom in Blackpool in 2004 shows one of the
great performances of our day.
9. The White Stripes - 'The Hardest Button To Button': The video to this song came out at a time long before we discovered Youtube. MTV 2 had this on repeat throughout the noughties and we thank them for it to this day. In rhythm with the song, images of both band members fill the screen in an odd kaleidoscopic way. The video aside, this is an archetypal White Stripes song, because similarly to 'Seven Nation Army', it shows it's the simplest approach that sometimes is the most effective.
8. The White Stripes - 'You Don't Know What Love is (You just do as your told)': 2009's Icky Thump came packed with hits and at the time was arguably their best album since Elephant. This is the standout cut on the album and it immediately sticks in your head. It's a slower tempo than most of their tracks, but with poignant lyricism that's easy to sing-a-long to. This is an easily-accessible cut for those less familiar with Whites back catalogue. Your mum might even like it.
7. The White Stripes - 'Black Math': Another choice cut from 2003's Elephant. This song illustrates why Jack White is one of the the coolest frontmen in rock today. It's heavier than 'Hotel Yorba' and live it's able to channel the energy of early punk, such as The Stooges, in a new way.
6. Jack White - 'Hypocritical Kiss': Jack White's debut album Blunderbuss marked the first significant departure he made from relying solely on guitars for lead melodies. The piano sound here has an epic quality to it that and cements White's status as a talented multi-instrumentalist. The piano also gives space for his words to stand centre stage and here, like on the rest of Blunderbuss, they show great intimacy.
5. Jack White - 'Lazaretto' This title-track, taken from his second solo album released in June this year, is more boisterous than anything on Blunderbuss. Fuzzy bass lines and a moody swagger that isn't too far removed from some of Josh Homme's approach suits White well. His musical output has always had a dirty, grungy side, but this just appears somewhat bolder and more assertive than before.
4. The White Stripes - '300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues': The bi-polar dynamics here are what makes this track shine. We hear archetypal raw blues rock guitar have moments that smack you in the face like a twister ripping its way through a town and picking up debris on the way. It's then cut with clean slick lead guitar slides, an acoustic guitar, and piano. Definitely a highlight of the Icky Thump album.
3. The White Stripes - 'Ball And Biscuit': The White Stripes have long been admired for creating a well-rounded sound with just two members. This is largely due to Meg White's simple yet powerful bass drum filling in the low end. This in tandem with a feral overdriven blues guitar sound makes the sound complete. In this cut, the mania in the instrumentals reflects the energy of the words which are common to blues. They tell the tale of someone being highly intoxicated and making optimistic advances toward a woman that may be just out of sight.
2. The White Stripes - 'The Dead Leaves And The Dirt Ground': This was released in 2001, the year that garage rock made a great comeback. The Vines, Jet, The Datsuns were all gaining vast support from within in the industry, as well as album sales but it was The White Stripes that were leading the pack. 'Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground' helped position them as an outstanding contribution to this revival, and to this day it's one of their best songs. White must agree. He played it at Glastonbury last month to a storming reception.
1.The White Stripes - 'Seven Nation Army': Perhaps the biggest indie anthem of the noughties. 'Seven Nation Army' marks The White Stripes at their catchiest. Such is the importance of this song to the current generation of twenty-somethings, the main guitar riff that drives the song was sung by the Hyde Park crowd at The Libertines recent gig whilst they were forced to stop playing due to crowd crush. He can't get away with leaving it out of his set that easily either, it's their 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and it was his set closer at Glastonbury this year. A classic for decades to come.