Music, Record Reviews

That ’60s & ’70s Show: New Raconteurs

Posted by: detourmag on March 24, 2008 at 9:00 pm

raconteursconsolers.jpg
The Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely (Third Man Records/Warner Bros., 2008)

Listen: “Consoler of the Lonely”
[audio:http://www.detour-mag.com/audio/ConsoleroftheLonely.mp3]

OK, Raconteurs. You want immediacy? Well here it is. We’re not letting it permeate. We’re not letting it marinate. Nothing that ends in “eate” or “inate.” We’re just going to let it rip. You wanted it this way. This is your life, straight from Detour’s hip.

First, guitars. On Consolers of the Lonely, guitars are everywhere. This seems to make a lot of sense, as Brendan Benson and Jack White are both guitar players. Brilliant ones, at that. They pile ‘em on, tossing off psychedelic squiggles, acoustic weepers, metallic shred- fests, bawdy power-chord crunchers… basically anything a guitar is capable of doing. Benson and White make sure their combined twelve strings are getting the workout of their fucking lives. You can feel the sweat pouring off their custom-made axes, dripping onto a floor strewn with analog tape, peppermint candy, and Led Zeppelin records. And it’s awesome.

Second, the horns. Why do bands feel that in order to expand their sound, they should go ahead and get all Satchmo on us? Yeah, it works some of the time (Spoon are a great example of this), but why not just add the entire Tijuana Brass, dudes? The Raconteurs don’t overdo it, thankfully, though the end of “Switch and Spur” straddles dangerously close to the manic brass blasts heard on the Stripes’ cover of “Conquest.”

Listen: “Five on the Five”
[audio:http://www.detour-mag.com/audio/FiveontheFive.mp3]

Next, we must discuss the fact that Benson and White are wildly obsessed with rock music from the 1960s and 70s. From the production to the pretension, we wouldn’t be shocked to find that the Raconteurs still think gas cost 72 cents a gallon and that they drink their Cokes exclusively from glass bottles. However, they can’t really pick a classic rock style they are comfortable with, and move through musclebound stompers like “Consoler of the Lonely” and “Salute Your Solution” like the world’s luckiest bar band opening for Joe Cocker at some shirts-optional outdoor festival in 1971. Close your eyes, and you can imagine Benson, White, bassist Jack Lawrence, and drummer Patrick Keeler touring in a short bus, wearing American flag underwear and rolling their own cigarettes, probably with a dog. Elsewhere, they get their corporate rock-style ballad on, slowing down on “Old Enough” and “Rich Kid Blues.” (It sounds a little like Styx and Foreigner battling it out in a vat of pure cheese). It’s all very brown and tan, very old-tweed-couch-with-cigarette-burns-in-the-cushions. We suggest listening to it while smoking weed with your dad.

Listen: “Old Enough”
[audio:http://www.detour-mag.com/audio/OldEnough.mp3]

But back to this idea of immediacy. Even though iTunes fucked up and the album leaked anyway, the Racs wouldn’t allow the industry standard three months for nerds like us to live with the album before it’s official “release.” After listening, we don’t blame them. The do-it-now-ness of the album runs rampant, from the break-neck tempos of out-and-out jams like “Hold Up,” “Five on the Five,” and “Attention” to White’s spitfire delivery on album closer “Carolina Drama.” And for that, we salute you Raconteurs.

So that’s our reaction. Immediate and now. Get at us in three months and we’ll tell you what we really think. — Ryan Allen

[tags]Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely, Jack White, Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence, Patrick Keeler, Styx, Foreigner[/tags]

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