Jack and Meg White’s homage to De Stijl and Blind Willie McTell. The last is a blues singer I already wrote about. He is, along with Son House, featured on this album in two covers. De Stijl (the style) is an art movement from the 20s of last century, concentrated around architect Gerrit Rietveld and painter Piet Mondriaan. It’s typical straight lines and kubist shapes in red and white are everywhere on the album.
Jack and Meg divorced right before making the album. At the insistence of Meg they kept working together. They would keep doing that for the next four albums, most of them quite successful. De Stijl however was an unexpected success, what in marketing is called a sleeper hit. Slowly it attracted more and more attention, leading to its current status as a cult album.