White Blood Cells (album) - Release and Reception

Release and Reception

White Blood Cells was rushed onto the shelves by Sympathy, although the record label wasn't prepared to handle the hype that would surround the record. White Blood Cells was released to nearly universal acclaim. Considered the band's commercial breakthrough, White Blood Cells peaked at number 61 on the Billboard 200, going Platinum and selling over 1,000,000 units. The album also reached number 55 in the United Kingdom, being bolstered in both territories by the "Fell in Love with a Girl" single and its Lego-animation music video. Stylus magazine rated it the fifteenth greatest album of 2000–2005 while Pitchfork Media ranked it ninth on their list of the top 100 albums from 2000–2004, and twelfth on their top 200 of the 00s. Uncut Magazine placed it first in their list of the greatest 150 albums of the 00s.

The album was dedicated to Loretta Lynn, creating a friendship between Lynn and both Jack and Meg White. In 2004, Jack White would produce Lynn's comeback hit album Van Lear Rose.

Redd Kross bassist Steven Shane McDonald created an online-only art project, titled Redd Blood Cells, in which he added a bass track to the otherwise bass-less album. The White Stripes arranged with Steven to take the files down after more than 60,000 downloads.

Rolling Stone named White Blood Cells the twentieth best album of the decade, and "Fell in Love with a Girl" the fifty-eighth best song of the decade.