Jack White has more music up his sleeve, and won't be finished creating any time soon. He recently told BBC Radio 1 that he has enough songs left after the Blunderbuss sessions to create an entire new album. White says: "We had enough for an album »»
Ok, so roughly six months ago, I made up a list of ten things that I was hoping would come to pass in the year 2009. And since 2009 is half-over, I figured that now would be a good time to revisit that list and see how much of what I wished for has come to pass. ... »»
The Raconteurs - Consolers of Lonely
Warner Brothers (3/25/08)
Rock / Blues
Let's call it, for now and perpetuity: It looks like The Raconteurs are going to replace The White Stripes as Jack White's primary outlet of creativity. While no serious rumors of a Jack & Meg split are swirling, no one pours this much effort into a mere "side project". Consolers of the Lonely is an early contender for Album of the Year, and considering the short amount of time it traveled from their synapses to our eardrums, it clearly comes from some other planet. This record shows that Jack's retro fixation isn't a gimmick or post-ironic drag; he's making music that is informed by all the best from the '60s and '70s and could still stand alone next to all its influences.
Having a group of fellow retro geeks in Brendan Benson, Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence (the last two of the Greenhornes) gives Jack's brilliant musical autism a focus, and the backing of a full band shows how well White's mind functions when someone else is throwing ideas at him. It feels like treason for a die-hard White Stripes fan like myself to say so, but Jack White may have found his true calling with The Raconteurs.
The bitterness and tension that permeated the last White Stripes record, Icky Thump, shows up again on the first few tracks of Consolers of the Lonely. The title track kicks things off with a laundry list of complaints, culminating with the chorus of "I'm bored to tears". The time signature sputters and lurches at different speeds all through this song, but it's never jarring. The breakdown at the end features some insane bass and guitar dueling that shows the Racs are all about chops, and they sound like the aural equivalent of a speed binge. "Consolers of the Lonely" launches headfirst into the first single, "Salute Your Solution", and the pace never cools off from there. No question at all that this song was birthed from Dee-troit natives, because it's pure Moblow garage trash that grabs hold quick and don't say please (see requisite pissy bitterness in the lyrics: "I got what I got just to spite you").
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