The Raconteurs
Consolers Of The Lonely
***
Breakneck second album from Jack White’s other band.
As befits an album whose existence was only announced seven days ago, everything about Consolers Of The Lonely suggests speed and urgency. Mixed and mastered in the first week of March, in the shops by 25 March, The Raconteurs’s second album opens with the sound of convivial studio chatter and a mumbled instruction – “We’ll double-track that” – as if Jack White and Brendan Benson’s crew were in such a rush to release it they didn’t even have time to delete the out-takes.
That sense of pace never really lets up on an album that sees White, liberated from the primal blues-heft of The White Stripes, revelling in the chance to expand his sonic palette. That was true of The Raconteurs’ 2006 debut, of course, but here the sense of free-wheeling experimentation is more intense. There’s no “big single” in the Steady As She Goes mould – the closest we get to that is the hectic, doo-wop-meets-mariachi scrawl of Many Shades Of Black – but it’s a richer, more exhilarating listen than Broken Boy Soldiers. Overall, the impression is of a man (and this an album dominated by Jack White’s singular vision) over-burdened with creativity, bursting with ideas and tripping over himself in his eagerness to get them all out. That some level of coherence – and certainly much sense of human warmth - gets lost in the sonic melee is, perhaps, inevitable.
Consolers Of The Lonely is an album with a severe case of ADD, a dizzying whirlpool of garish juxtapositions in which no riff or rhythm is ever allowed to settle for more than a few seconds. Fiddle-driven trad-folk interspersed with zappy, Deep Purple-style Hammond organ wig-outs? That’ll be Old Enough. Piano whimsy jammed up alongside stacked, ELO-style harmonies? You’ll find such a whiplash-inducing mix on You Don’t Understand Me. There’s also a brace of songs, The Switch And The Spur and Many Shades Of Black, that are best described as Hispanic prog rock. Both take the galloping, Don Quixote-meets-Led Zep vistas explored on The White Stripes’ Conquest, and pump them full of testosterone and guitar-flash, pushing the needle even further into the red.
Guitar solos are everywhere on this album, spurting out in crazy and unexpected directions like the lines on a Jackson Pollock painting. Ironically, for someone who specialises in such basic, route-one riffs, Jack White is blossoming into one of rock’s most instantly recognisable guitarists, blessed with the uncanny ability to make his solos – especially those high, brittle ones – sound like electricity crackling between pylons.
There is a further irony, namely that someone famed for his ideological attachment to lo-fi, retro recording techniques, should have produced an album that is essentially an extended love letter to the inexhaustible possibilities of the recording studio. As final track Carolina Drama hurtles to its mad, mandolin-driven climax, you’re left with the mental image of an over-heating mixing desk, smoke pouring from the faders – as well as the notion of a man who clearly needs two bands to soak up the overspill from his over-active creativity.
Careering through genres with virtuosic abandon, while never quite providing a glimpse of the inner lives behind it, Consolers Of The Lonely is a difficult album to truly love, but it's one that’s impossible not to admire.
LUKE LEWIS
6:13 PM | 25/03/2008
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This is exactly why it was not publicized...I have the disc..and it is great. Doesn't trap you...takes you from place to place...and they are all different...but all great! Rock on!
Posted by Mary at 7:44 PM | 28/03/2008 | Report Abuse
This is a vast improvement on the last album, and a refreshing change form the droves of mediocre indie bands that we are currently plagued with. Each track feels very different from the last and oozes with ideas and creativity.
I don’t think the Q review quite does this album justice. We should embrace the creativity shown here, not condemn it.....bottom line is listen for yourself, not to me or the media, but do what the band intended and give it a try without other peoples opinions to cloud your judgment.
Posted by Tom at 1:08 AM | 31/03/2008 | Report Abuse
I've had this album on constantly since I got it and am pleased to a certain extent at the way it has been "rush-released" with little or no publicity; from the opening track that grabs you by the balls it is in a constant state of re-invention- never giving you time to adjust to a particular style before striking off in a different direction. Jack Whites vocals are as recognisable as his guitar but they still do not dominate what is a superb album and a possible future classic.
Posted by John Relph at 1:14 PM | 01/04/2008 | Report Abuse
.....as a postscript to my comments yesterday, the more I listen to the album the more I'm reminded of The Who "Who's Next", and I can't think of a more favourable comparison.
Posted by John Relph at 12:31 PM | 02/04/2008 | Report Abuse
Q seem quite bitter that they were not given the time to review the album before it came out. The review seems to be almost like a reply to an insult, which the album is not. I think that the magazine should lighten up that it wasn't in The Raconteurs minds when they made the album.
Posted by Jonny Dixon at 2:01 AM | 14/04/2008 | Report Abuse
Disappointing review.
I reckon this is a fantastic album from the opening to heavy songs right through to the end.
I thought this album was an early pick for album of the year.
Posted by angus browne at 11:07 AM | 28/05/2008 | Report Abuse
Love the new album and I have just booked my tickets. Whilst doing so, I found a nifty little ticket price comparison site called tixdaq. I have never seen one of these for concert tickets, but this one is great. I managed to get a pair for a fraction over face for the Eden project thing after being away for their London shows.
Posted by Dave Whcikington at 12:29 PM | 28/05/2008 | Report Abuse
This album deserves at least 4 stars, just give it a small bit of time. It's brilliant!
MGMT rule!
Posted by Aidan Blake at 7:38 PM | 03/07/2008 | Report Abuse
hmm yeah indie sucks fat rock cock
Posted by JD at 10:08 PM | 17/03/2009 | Report Abuse
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