Confusing but compelling: the Raconteurs.
After springing the news of their second album on the world just last week, Consolers of the Lonely by the Raconteurs was released today. Here, our critic gives his first impressions - please add yours below
1. Consoler of the Lonely
The growling, low slung blues that ushers in the Racs' second set plonks up right into Ball and Biscuit country, as an echoey Jack White ploughs into a distracted opener that, for all its playfulness, sets an ominous lyrical tone. "My interest is starting to wane / I'm told it's everything a man could want ... / And I shouldn't complain." This couldn't be the "fame sucks" album... Could it?
2. Salute Your Solution
Echoes of The Hardest Button to Button as the pace becomes frantic. As the vocals speed up to a chant and the guitars screech more wildly, it looks like we won't be in for too many pop thrills. Lyrically too, things are bitter: "I got what I got all to spite you / And I'll get what I get just to spite you."
3. You Don't Understand Me
Jack and Brendan channel Elton John on this piano-driven cousin of Hands from Broken Boy Soldiers, the first monent of true prettiness. Excitingly, the wisdom of Obi Wan Kenobi proves crucial: "Who is the fool? The fool or the fool that you are fooling?"
4. Old Enough
Violins conjure up a country jig, while stabs of Mellotron lead you down all kinds of melodic twists and turns. Lyrically we're in the same ballpark as the Stripes tune You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told). Having a go at somebody for their inexperience, which hardly seems fair. But still, more variety than last time after just four songs.
5. The Switch and the Spur
Horns! Cowboy imagery! Storytelling! This is much more like it, a Mariachi stomp through a fable of a broken boy, er, cowboy, told in multiple movements. Dips in the middle, but by the end its a rootin', tootin' hoot. Like Panic at the Disco this is both pretty and odd.
6. Hold Up
Both woozily psychedelic and a bit like the Clash, this can't make its mind up what it wants to be. Taking in both chanting to bluesy punk, it has a super-simple chorus to cut through any fretwankery. Of which there is a fair amount, to be honest.
7. Top Yourself
A self-help song about suicide, which pretty much encapsulates the spirit of this strange, strange record. Jack won't be there to assist, apparently. Things get more spooky when you realise that it's basically a nursery rhyme cradled in slide guitar.
8. Many Shades of Black
The parping horns return for this Queen-channelling showtune that allows some nice respite from the pub blues, which by now has become the dominant theme. Instead, Jack hovers between a howl and a croon on what is easily the most fun track so far. The more you lick it, the more you like it.
9. Five on the Five
We really are into the fun strait now, as things pick up speed again for this T Rex-ish stomper. Sure, it might just be the Raconteurs appropriating different parts of their record collections, but on moments like this they do that exceptionally well. Also, the moaning has subsided.
10. Attention
Return to the swamp! Some nice experimental multitracked vocals toward the end of this stodgy racket don't do much to shake the feeling that this song wouldn't be missed if it wasn't here.
10. Pull This Blanket Off
The balladeering spirit of Elton returns and haunts this two-minute interlude, fat with earnest pronouncements such as "It's hard to stick to your guns when everyone is having fun."
11. Rich Kid Blues
More minor key fumbling as Mr White takes a satirical swipe at his curmedgeonly self from earlier on. The song sounds like it's going to trundle, but eventually it darts off into some delightfully bonkers prog rock guitar. Which is a relief
12. These Stones Will Shout
Like some kind of country rock Black Sabbath, this mixes occult swagger with the kind of beautifully simple songwriting that Jack seduced us with in the first place.
13. Carolina Drama
The big finale takes the form of a slow-burning murder ballad soaked in gin, intrigue and a mysterious postman. By turns gritty and whimsical, it's a nicely surreal end to an album that's as confusing as it is compelling. A bit of choice pruning and Consolers of the Lonely could've been a classic.
