Raconteurs: Consolers of the Lonely

Label: Warner Bros.

The sophomore release from heavy-hitting supergroup The Raconteurs was a marketing experiment in getting the music straight to the people. Released a week after it was announced to the public, there was no press, no promo copies, no internet leak, just new jams with minimal hype before the record was available. A little old-fashioned or coy on the part of Jack White and Brendan Benson’s lovechild rock machine, perhaps, but if anyone’s in the position to give the world a record just because they feel like it that week, it’s these guys. Given the monolithic nature of their 2006 debut, maybe the silent arrival of Consolers of the Lonely is appropriate. The 14 songs sound remarkably comfortable, and more like a band who’s been working on their craft for a decade than the side-project of bored rockstars. Benson and White blur into a singular front man, sometimes indistinguishable from each other in vocal presence and songwriting. On songs like “Salute Your Solution” Patrick Keeler’s astonishingly tight drumming might remind you just how primitive Meg’s beats sound in comparison, but only until you start to think about how great Jack Lawrence’s bass guitar sounds and then notice the horns, keyboards, ELO-influenced vocal harmonies culminating into solid songs by a stellar rock band, starpower and press releases be damned.