The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
After all the hoo-ha surrounding the helter-skelter release of this album and the refusal to allow reviewers to have advance copies and all of that gubbins has died down, I think we can now safely address the question of whether or not it is actually any good without tripping over wordy Music 2.0 chatter at every turn.
I’ve already been accused of anti-mainstream snobbery once today, so I am a little hesitant to say this, but I actually do not think this album is especially good. Jack White’s dirty blues are still in evidence, as are some of the more eccentric digressions that decorated the last White Stripes album. And once again Brendan Benson brings just enough pop sensibility to the record to take it a clear step away from other White enterprises.
The thing is that somehow they seem to have landed in the sort of Rawk territory that lacks something of the bite of Broken Boy Soldiers. Many Shades of Black, for example, may be an excellent song but it has more than a whiff of Queen about it, particularly in the chorus. It’s weird.
You know what I think may have happened? I think some of the pace has gone out of their music. Broken Boy Soldiers seemed to distill the excitement of a new project into music that drove forwards excitedly onto the next riff, or the next song, or whatever else they came up with next. This seems to lack a little of that bubbling energy and consequently the album comes across as more than a little bit sluggish.
Am I being an anti-mainstream snob again? I don’t know, possibly, but I am just not very excited by listening to this record.
The Raconteurs – The Switch & the Spur
The Raconteurs – Carolina Drama
The Fun Police have made an appearance and music has consequently returned to the 19th Century, where it will presumably remain until someone rolls a much-needed hand grenade into Web Sherriff Towers.
Well, thanks for reviewing pretty much every album I had in my queue in like two days. I guess I should stop procrastinating and actually review them, huh?
I’ve had them queuing up for a bit as well actually. I think this is the most Q Magazine-esque spell I’ve ever had on SbT!
sellout. :-p
If I had a soul to sell I’d have pawned it for a half-empty bottle of gin years ago, mate!
I want to love this band, really I do.
After the release of Broken Boy Soldiers, I managed to catch them on their first tour—a small theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan—near their home turf of Detroit (before they high-tailed it to Nashville). I LOVE White Stripes, I like Brendon Benson…however, this band pretty much bores me to tears.
Steady as She Goes (album version) is an OK tune, but they were just plain DULL live. I haven’t listened to the new album yet.
WEB SHERIFF
Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
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WITHOUT PREJUDICE
Hi Matthew / SBT,
On behalf of XL Recordings and Warner Bros Records, we would kindly ask you not to post copies of “Consolers Of The Lonely” on your site (or any individual tracks from The Ranconteurs’ newly released album – release date 25th March).
We do appreciate that you are fans of / are promoting / discussing The Ranconteurs, but XL and Warners would greatly appreciate your co-operation in removing your links to the pirate files in question. If you’d like a good quality, non-pirated, preview clip, a widget of the promo video for “Salute Your Solution” is available for you to embed at http://www.theraconteurs.com/widget.html .
Many thanks for respecting the artist’s and label’s wishes.
As you will appreciate, this e-mail is written on a without prejudice basis and, as such, all of our clients’ accumulated, worldwide rights and remedies remain strictly reserved : please excuse this required formality.
Regards,
WEB SHERIFF
I haven’t even listened to this yet, and it’s because of my feelings about the first record. I like the Jack White stuff and dislike the Brendan Benson material. Sigh. I guess I’ll give this a spin eventually, but I’m not gonna buy it first.
Matthew, have you ever heard of “Sound Opinions”? It’s a music review show from Chicago Public Radio. Look for it. It features Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis of the Sun Times and Tribune. Might be the best rock music show I have ever heard and they seem to be on the same page with you all the time.
Dear Web Sherriff, you make me sad. The songs are removed and all that but honestly, I assume you can’t be naive enough to think you are helping. I am starting a record label myself and I would rather fuck an angry tiger in the ear than employ your utterly pointless services. Thanks for popping by though, and I’ll be sure to tell the 21st Century hello, so it will welcome you when you eventually get here.
Everyone else, I agree with you, except Wendy. Dull live? Are you joking? I saw them play at the Corn Exchange here a couple of years ago and they were sensational. I almost added it as a corollary to my review that I bet they are still great live so even if you don’t buy the album, go and see the show. Mind you I’ve had some wildly varying reports of how they play so maybe you just got them on a bad day, but I was really impressed, myself.
Dear Web Sheriff,
On behalf of S,bT & Mr Toad + all his loyal readership I, one half of Drunk Country, would like to suggest you crawl out of your overcrowded arse, go buy a dictionary & a mirror, look up the word you retroactive pointless luddite cunt &, repeating said word aloud, take a good hard look in your second purchase.
Happy to point you in the general vicinty of other useful vernacular, such as jobsworthy natural progress rapist & bollock-chop’d corporate fuck monkey, should the above simply not do it for you.
Sincerely, as in a “you are a genuine medieval twat, you genuine medieval twat you (individually & collectively, however your cloak is populated) without prejudice basis,
one half of Drunk Country
c/o Music 2.0