It was a difficult stretch, but I compiled this mini list. My number one pick (“Colorado” by the Rentals) was only available for mp3 download only. It was easily my favorite song last year. "Colorado" should still be available for a free download at the website http://www.reigoplaylist.com/.
It is so hard to keep up with what people are actually considering singles or album tracks, especially in the day and age of my friend iTunes. I hope that this is a good enough compilation. It makes for a fun mix on my I-Pod.
I will list my favorite albums of the year tomorrow.
1. Colorado by The Rentals
2. Pork and Beans by Weezer
3. Aly, Walk With Me by The Raveonettes
4. Salute Your Solution by The Raconteurs
5. Gamma Ray by Beck
6. Spaceman by The Killers
7. I’m Amazed by My Morning Jacket
8. Call It Off by Tegan and Sara
9. Addicted to Drugs by Kaiser Chiefs
10. Another Way To Die by Jack White and Alicia Keys
11. Real Love by Lucinda Williams
12. Brand New Start by Little Joy
13. Magick by Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
14. I Will Possess Your Heart by Death Cab for Cutie
15. Viva la Vida by Coldplay
16. Nine in the Afternoon by Panic at the Disco
17. Moab by Conor Oberst
18. I Believe In You by Cat Power
19. Someday Baby by Bob Dylan
20. So What by Pink
The Raconteurs CONSOLERS OF THE LONELY
c2008 THIRD MAN RECORDS
The Raconteurs(clockwise from left): Jack White, Patrick Keeler,
Jack Lawrence, and Brendan Benson
The wind blows hard in the desert. A sole tumbleweed rolls its way across the highway. From the distance, entering the frame, we see an old beat up Ford Econoline van. It appears out of the hazy distance and is soon making its way toward its temporary destination, an old Mom and Pop style Truck Stop and Cafe. Four travel weary passengers crawl out of the van, one by one, and survey the scene. The first one hasn't seen the sun in weeks, his skin is pale. He runs his rough, caloused fingers through his disheveled, curly, and sandy blond hair before scratching at his stubbled chin. The dark haired, boyish-looking man next to him is taller and lanky. He adjusts his sunglasses, puts his large fingers in the front pockets of his jeans, and turns to the other two gentleman as they walk from the other side of the van. One of them has black round framed glasses and long black hair. The other has an almost whimsical look about him. Its definitely the face of a pirateer. No, its only their always energetic drummer, seemingly excited to actually be somewhere, anywhere, except cramped up in the van for 400 miles. The four of them look ahead to see a weather-worn building with the peeling paint claiming "open 24 hours". Its got an old beat up Oldsmobile Delta 88 parked in front of the phone booth. The rest of the parking lot looks deserted. They approach with caution, wondering if the place is even still opened for business. The lanky dark haired one with the shades points to the door's 'open' sign. "Looks like we're in luck."
The four of them seat themselves in a booth in the corner. The imitation leather material looks like its seen better days. There's a piece of grey masking tape patching a hole in the back of the booth. A middle-aged red headed woman, wearing a name tag that reads 'Marjorie' walks up to the table wiping her hands on her apron, before taking out her pad and pencil. "Can I help you boys?"
"Can I just get a glass of water to start with please?" The sandy haired one says politely in almost a whisper...
The opening, self-titled track of the new Raconteurs album, Consolers of the Lonely goes down like cold water on a hot day in the desert. Its a refreshing sound to put it lightly. The entire album is, surprisingly, as special and enticing as a visit to that lone cafe in the middle of nowhere while on a long journey. Its a nice place to visit. And while there are some questionable moments, like that patched booth in the corner, its still comforting to hear musicians making music from the soul when so much of the music today is pre-programmed, soulless rubbish. One just needs to listen to the first track to know this is going to be a nice little visit.
I enjoyed this album a lot more on my initial listen than I recall liking their previous effort, Broken Boy Soldiers. The boys are more ambitious this time round and it certainly shows. I left this CD in maximum rotation in my car stereo for several weeks straight. I wanted to completely immerse myself in every note, every vocal, every lyric. While I have been a fan of the White Stripes for a very long time, I know that with the two of them, they are pretty limited in what they can project. With the Raconteurs, White allows himself to fully utilize all the elements of a four piece combo. They've thrown in everything except the kitchen sink and 90% of the time, that works too!
Consoler of the Lonely starts off with a sharp hook of a guitar riff that makes you want to crank up the stereo. Somehow as Benson is singing about some of the problems he seems to be having lately, White seems to be offering some consolation to those woes. It strikes me as being about a working musician's life on the road. Its not "Traveling Band" by CCR, "Moving On" by Bad Company, but lyrically it really is reminescent of those types of road songs, to me. The riff itself kind of reminds me of what would happen if the opening of the Steve Miller Band's "Rock N Me" had been done by the Who in about 1974. The lick isnt so much blatantly obvious as "Steady As She Goes" [from the last album Broken Boy Soldiers] seemed to be influenced by Joe Jackson's "Is She Really Going Out With Him." Its reminescent though and similar enough that I noticed. I love the homages the band plays to the older rockers though. I want to make sure thats clear. The song takes a trip through many different stylings all at once starting off slow moving into a fast mode and taking it back down at the end.
I enjoyed seeing the video for the first single from the album, "Solute Your Solution," on You Tube. It blended hundreds of lovely black and white images by Autumn de Wilde. The song is a hard-rocking cadence of power riffs and ripping and ranting by both vocalists that immediately blew my mind. I especially love the bass by Jack Lawrence in this song which I think would make John Entwistle proud.
The third track, “You Dont Understand Me, ” sounds to be a tribute to many different styles. It starts off something from Jeff Beck or early Bad Company and soars to a different place in the chorus...It also kind of reminds me of a White Stripes song "You Dont Know What Love Is."
Another one of my favorite tracks on the album is "Old Enough". I enjoyed the fiddle. Its like a little country mixed with a slow rock groove on "Here for More" or "Time is Passing" by the Who with more pretty harmony vocals.
I admit to liking "The Switch and the Spur" now, but I was afraid I was going to say too much against it. The song reminds me of what would have happened if Marty Robbins had joined Rush in the mid-70s during the peak of their 'concept album' hey-day, and then they decided to score spaghetti westerns together. I guess the worst could have been a concept album based on the spaghetti western. I just kept imagining Geddy Lee and Marty Robbins together in a duet and it wasnt a nice thought. I suppose it would have been interesting and even humourous to a point, but... I love Marty Robbins and his solemn gun fighter ballads. I love Horns. I love the scores for the spaghetti westerns. I dare to admit to owning and often enjoying Rush's 2112 and A Farewell To Kings as a teenager. I have partaken in my fill of a mix of metal and art rock. I am really liking the partnership of Benson and White's song writing under normal circumstances throughout the rest of the album. Taken together on this track, as a sum of all these elements, none of this makes any sense. These things just dont mix well, let alone adding other elements also. Its like oil and water. It just wasn't to my liking on the first several listens and while the CD was pretty much the only thing I listened to for the first two weeks I owned it, I can admit to you that I hit the 'skip' button on this track after giving it several chances. [Its slightly better on the "Many Shades of Black," but it just made me cringe the first few times I heard that track as well. But, I am getting ahead of myself...]
There seems to be a nod to perhaps a little bit of Zeppelin on "Hold Up". The lyrics remind me of a scary trip to a carnival, like in the novel Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, though I think the song itself may be more of a twisted love song, where the object of his affections was found at a circus side show Freaks exhibit. I dig every fast-paced moment of it.
Dumping a lover never sounded so sweet and sexy as it does in "Top Yourself." White claws his way through the lines, scathing in his attack, borrowing the slide blues riffs and delivery like one of his delta blues heroes. Throughout the entire song, the narrator taunts his lover as he eventually asks her "How you gonna get that deep when your daddy aint around here to do it to you?" The rawness makes this such a stand-out track. The banjo is an extra special touch.
I wrote about a page originally on "Many Shades of Black" and eventually really had to edit myself. Its one of the two tracks on the album that I initially didnt enjoy as much. (The other being The Switch and the Spur). Perhaps this is pretention hitting a bumpy, graveled road. Where Van Morrison achieved the best of soul and even jazz blending sweetly on ASTRAL WEEKS on tracks like "The Way Young Lovers Do"; Queen worked it on A NIGHT AT THE OPERA taking art rock to a new theatrical, soulful level; yet, I am having a hard time being convinced of the sincerity of this one. Obviously I dont know what was in Benson's head as he was singing this, but I really wanted to try to imagine it. I was trying to put my finger on what was giving me the creeps about the track. Honestly it was hard to pin point exactly. I love the Memphis Horns. I loved Van Morrison and Queen albums. I really couldnt fault Brendan Benson's vocals. The songwriting team again of White and Benson is successful in most other areas on the album (with the other exception being "The Switch And The Spur"...). Perhaps it was again the mixture of the elements? While Benson sings beautiful harmonies on the other tracks, it was just not what I felt mixed with the tone of the track. There was something weak in how it all blended, something with the mix, perhaps.
"Five on the Five" is an older track that the band debuted on their 2006 tour. I remember seeing it performed from a festival on a clip on You Tube. I loved the energy of it played live, yet they have polished it for the record. Still capturing a real spontaneous delivery but with the mix just right. Its a highly energetic, frantically paced moment of head-banging abandonment as Keeler's drumming drives the beat home. One also cant help but sing along with the catchy chorus.
The next track to follow is "Attention." Its a fantastically energetic ditty where Black Sabbath meets The Who...The intro with the driving drums, grooving bass, and jagged guitars travel up and down like an intro to a Sabbath song. Then the keyboards and pop remind us we're all here to worship at an alter of twisted modernized classic rock. The sinister vocals growl that it "has some kind of vice...a grip on me." Once again the drumming is frantic like revisiting Keith Moon.
"Pull This Blanket Off Of Me" has the soothing piano stylings of the White Stripes "I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart" in a contageous mode of Badfinger and early 1970's Paul McCartney, meets bluesy Stones circa the Mick Taylor era. One can imagine Keith and Mick singing this one. I was thinking how Jack and Brendan even have a Faces type style to their vocals, which is charming.
The sole cover version on the record is of British classic Terry Reid's "Rich Kid Blues..." If I may be so bold as to say this, I really like this version even better than the original.
In "These Stones Will Shout," the acoustic guitar intro takes me back in time to a drive in the country in the early 1970s with my parents. It grooves with the hard strumming acoustics for the first half of the track and then takes us somewhere closer to a harder edge as it ends when the amps crank to 11. "Speak to me and dont speak softly...Grab hold and do not let go..." They sing so harmoniously.
The album ends on such a high note. Its like the apple pie a la mode after that tasty country dinner. "Carolina Drama" is an epic that was my immediate first favorite track on the album. There's pretty arpeggios, choir-like beauty of female back ground singers, and passionate story telling from Mr White. Lyrically it reminds me of a cross between Bob Dylan and Bobbie Gentry (when she was writing such classics as Ode To Billie Joe and Fancy). Musically it combines the best of blues and folk for a soothing good time. It is a telling of a story that starts off so sad and violent and ends with a happy sing-a-long. There is also a tinge of mystery left at the end as well, like that secret ingredient in Grandma's Apple Pie. Just what role did the milk man play besides delivering that cold bottle of milk that would prove so important to Billy making his stand? Why is the little brother holding that milk man's hand? And, just what is it about that bottle of gin anyway? I really think with the jubilant vocals at the end it ends happily, yet eerily, because we don't know the whole story, and we wonder if we could ask him, what would that milk man say anyhow? Maybe its best if the secrets remain hidden after all.
When visiting a little cafe in the middle of nowhere, a hungry traveler certainly might partake in something of a 'hearty' meal. Its like the traditional country fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, salad and greens. Each song on the album is like another helping of Granny's viddles--if Granny had some electric guitars and listened to Zeppelin and The Who all night. There's the mystery side items like that sweet potatoes suffle that I always gobbled up, but my mother always hated when Granny made it [The Switch and The Spur and Many Shades of Black]; but then there are the other goodies that are wholesome and yummy [the rest of the album]. Once a thirst is quenched by cool refreshing water, we can say that our traveler is hungry for something new and traditional at the same time, but equally as exciting...
In keeping with traveling musicians, before closing, I wanted to mention something about the album cover itself. The boys are posed in an old fashioned style, with the photo looking dated 75 years or more. I immediately thought of the oddest combination in my head of Jack White in his traveling folk group in the motion picture Cold Mountain, Neil Diamond's "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show," and Cher's "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves." I don't guess it can get any weirder than that. Sometimes Weird is Beautiful though, and this is one of those cases.
Upon finishing their dinner at the little truck stop cafe, the four refreshed vagabonds get up from their tattered booth to leave, as the wattress gives them a wink and asks them to come back again soon.
As listeners of Consolers of the Lonely, we're only happy to return for another helping on another day, feeling safe there from the elements of the desert outside the windows.
My review summed up in one sentence:
Its the pit stop in the middle of nowhere, mixing the best of the old, classic rock style and making it new and satisfying.
My Rating:
$$$$1/2
The Raconteurs are currently on a world tour and will be playing the KROQ Weenie Roast this weekend, Saturday, May 17, in Los Angeles. For our International friends, don't forget that the band will be at the Glastonbury Festival this year also, performing on the Pyramid Stage on June 28. For more specific details on Tour Dates, Ticket Prices, etc., please check out their official sites...
Visit The Raconteurs on the web.
www.theraconteurs.com
http://www.myspace.com/theraconteurs
http://www.youtube.com/theraconteurs
My Rating System:
$$$$$--Well worth your Time and Money. Its an instant Classic. You should rush out and buy this NOW!
$$$$--There are a quite a few good tracks, but it needs some improvement. A great record over all, though not perfect. I still highly recommend it. Something pretty cool.
$$$--There are some good tracks however, you can save your money on New and wait to find this Used at your favorite re-seller. There are no more than 5 stand out tracks worth paying your hard earned money for...
$$--Definitely try to borrow it from the library or off a friend…There may still be some thing listenable here.
$--One word. Pathetic. Approach with caution.
NO $'s--No Money. No Dice. Not worth it at any price. I wouldn’t recommend it if it were given to you for Free.
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