The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

Genre indie-rock Publisher Third Man Records, LLC External Links The Raconteurs Homepage The Raconteurs MySpace Page

How exactly do you go about reviewing an album that the band specifically asks the press to not review so as not to color their audience’s perception? Short answer, you don’t. Long answer below:

The second album from The Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely, follows Broken Boy Soldiers with the same intensity and vim that fans of this modern day supergroup expect. The Raconteurs have maintained the meaning behind the name by once again putting together an album full of varied and well-phrased stories to create more of a collected work of short narratives rather than an album. These modern day troubadours weave tales of self-discovery, relationships, life on the road and the southern dramas with which Jack White is so enamored.

The album begins with the title track, “Consolers of the Lonely” that not only mirrors Led Zeppelin in its open-air recording style with chatter and ambient noise, but seems to mirror the fatigue from touring as well. The song opens with some standard Jack White guitar, a rhythm count off and muttered recording instructions from Brendan Benson which leads into the lament, “Light bulbs are getting dim / my interest is starting to wane / I’m told it’s everything a man could want / and I shouldn’t complain / conversation’s getting dull / there’s a constant buzzing in my ears / my sense of humor’s void and null and I’m bored to tears.” Jack White’s influence is brought to the forefront on this track, not only through the hitched garage guitar that he’s known for, but his alluringly demonic screeching interlude, “Are you looking for an accomplice?” as well.

The two Raconteurs from The Greenhornes (Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence) showcase their affinity for classic rock styles and psychedelic sounds in “These Stones Will Shout.” The song begins with a light-handed homage to classic Highland melodies that Jack White has developed a taste for (a la “Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn” from Icky Thump) and leads into an all out rock ballad. “These Stones Will Shout” is a love song in a sense, but one in which he urges his girlfriend to tell him her “first impression of all these clowns” rather than sit silently and wait for him to make the move. As the song escalates, so does the singer’s frustration and finally ends in dissatisfaction with Brendan and Jack repeatedly saying, “Grab hold and do not let go.”

After hearing Consolers of the Lonely, it becomes abundantly clear who the leader of this group is. Not only do the sentiments on The Raconteurs’ MySpace page allude to the leak that Jack White experienced with Icky Thump here in Chicago, but Consolers of the Lonely seems to combine the best of The White Stripes (old and new) and Broken Boy Soldiers while still incorporating little of The Greenhornes. The Raconteurs have once again mingled classic rock, gritty blues, bluegrass and feedback to come out with an album that will unseat their first as a fan favorite.