Never one to back down from confrontation, Jack White showed a little forethought this month and tried something new: He and his fellow Raconteurs rush-released their new album, Consolers of the Lonely, allowing it to hit stores merely a week after its existence was announced. Great for fans, a little tricky for the media (print especially). But despite (or even because of) expediting the process, they've still effectively given the media its hook: Raconteurs flout the system, bend the (one would assume) will of their record company, and hurry their album's release, hacks like us be damned. The cynical might say this is a red flag and a marketing gimmick, comparable to the press being denied advance screening to an upcoming movie, but that's not the case here. It's not a challenging record, nor one with any otherwise presentable narrative around it; it's four accomplished musicians making a decent-to-great record.
For all their similar backgrounds, you'd think Raconteurs debut Broken Boy Soldiers would have come across as a little more fun to create. Their sophomore record seems hammered-out quickly, honing on what you'd expect from the members' pedigrees-- big hooks and bigger guitars, stuffed arrangements, and plenty of instrumental shock and awe. Or rather, it just makes all that sound easy. Even the fussiest arrangements feel natural, like friends screwing around rather than two songwriting talents facing off. This album isn't about the thrill of the new; the White Stripes have bent arenas to fit their particular vision, and the Raconteurs are grinning through their opportunity to fill them. From the first staccato scrape of guitar in the opening title track, White is easy to pick out of the mix, but the track's strolling swagger sounds like an easy compromise. A sudden eighth-note skip of the bass leads the band into a tempo boost that would be bar-rock by-the-books, were it not hiding a moment of cascading vocal harmonies and preceding a neck-constricting guitar solo. Other songs lean on overdone Ribfest-appropriate templates as well, but they all feature distinctive little details-- the Celtic violin of "Old Enough", the warm Memphis-borrowed horns on the tempo-shifting waltz "Many Shades of Black", the tweaked and overdriven licks of "Hold Up" or "Five on the Five".
Many of those touches will sound familiar to White Stripes fans, of course, not to mention indulging White's Zeppelin fandom just one more time on "Top Yourself" (this time with banjos!). More of that teeth-rattling circus organ from Icky Thump hides in the corners of the strutting "Salute Your Solution", while "The Switch and the Spur" mashes spaghetti-western horns and regal cascading piano lines with echoing guitar chords out of a reggae track, all cramped together like a tiny budget Tarantino soundtrack. Maybe the best the Raconteurs can deliver is something like closer "Carolina Drama", a shaggy dog song-story featuring the attempted homicide of a priest and a rogue milkmen in its lyrics-- it's a song that tweaks tradition with a knowing wink, but doesn't disavow the power of continuing it.
Despite leading much of the material, Brendan Benson doesn't contribute any "Brendan Benson songs" here; both he and White simply step forward as the occasion demands. The two vocalists, therefore, blur into one another in their roles as dual frontmen. White grows tremendously as a singer and gets a little of his mania back, while Benson tightens his belt a few notches and manages to sound just as excitable, notably on the tag-team vocal of "Salute Your Solution". Whether it was intended or not, White's personality sometimes overwhelms, and makes Consolers sound like a little sibling to Icky Thump-- a little less unique, certainly, but another loose, comfortable affirmation of what they do well.
