Consolers Of The Lonely

I have all the White Stripes ablums and the first Raconters ablum. Overall Consolers Of The Lonely is a stronger ablum then Broken Boy Soldiers and, has many different styles of music running through this masterful rock ablum. The tiltle track is very good and other favourites are You Don't Understand Me, The Switch And The Spur, Many Shades Of Black + These Stone Will Shout. I must say that I do enjoy all the songs and there are no fillers here really. Jack White is one of the best things to happen to rock music if not the best from this decade. If you have not heard or got a White Stripes ablum then I really strongly recommend the Elephant cd.

If the Raconteurs first album was a fine introduction, then 'Consoler's of the Lonely' is certainly an emphatic confirmation of the band's quality and potential.

Opening with a couple of crushing slices of hard-edged blues-rock ('Consoler of the Lonely', 'Salute Your Solution') the album matures, twist and turns through its 14 varied, and more importantly, excellent tracks.

Brendan Benson's skills shine through on 'You Don't Understand Me' beautifully complimented by soaring 'storytelling' vocals from Jack White.
The influence of The White Stripes is more evident on this album than the first ('Five on the Five', 'Attention') but the vibe switches from garage-rock ('Hold Up') to epic blues-folk ('Many Shades of Black') at ease.

There's elements of The Who in the latter stages ('Rich Kid Blues', 'These Stones Will Shout') which give the album a classic-rock, maybe even progressive feel, which they do superbly. Patrick Keeler does his best Keith Moon impression on the fomer and White's crunching guitars throughout keep things rocking until 'Carolina Drama's beautiuful finale.

Even at 14 tracks it never feels too long and with a good pace, ecletic nature and a great combination of styles and musicianship, this is one of the albums of the year so far.

Arriving at stores all of a sudden in March, Consolers of the Lonely is an exciting new album by the band The Raconteurs, featuring perhaps most famously Jack White of the White Stripes. One of the things about this album is that it is a very strong collection of rock and roll songs. The songs list is obviously inspired by 60 and 70 hard rock, reminding us of such bands as Led Zeppelin. The music isn't really fresh or feels new, however, The Raconteurs make up for it by having a set of strong songs. This is not a groundbreaking album, however, it is an essential and exciting affair that really lets Jack White stretch his imagination. Good fun.

Excellent ***** If you like Led-Zep, You'll love this!!!
Consolers Of The Lonely is the second instalment from the Raconteurs (Jack Lawrence, Brendan Benson, Jack White and Patrick Keeler) brought to us by Third Man/XL Recordings. This CD is way better than their Debut album! Hands down. Jack White, Guitar Hero and song writing legend will go down in history and hopefully will be making records like this for years to come. Track 1, "Consoler of the Lonely", is a hard-hitting tune, which twists and turns (the tempo changes on several occasions). Full credit to Patrick Keeler's Drumming from the outset. Benson and White share the lyrics throughout and their vocal ranges work great together. Track 3, "You Don't Understand Me" is the best on the album. If you don't yet own this CD Make sure you go buy it NOW! It won't disappoint, the best I've heard of Jack White and The Raconteurs ***** TRULY AMAZING *****

Cover/Inlay: On the cover is a gothic-style photo of the band set in what looks like a village fete! The inlay does not provide us with much information, just some more gothic photos of the band and there are no printed lyrics.

Track List:
1. Consoler Of The Lonely
2. Salute Your Solution
3. You Don't Understand Me
4. Old Enough
5. The Switch And The Spur
6. Hold Up
7. Top Yourself
8. Many Shades Of Black
9. Five On The Five
10. Attention
11. Pull This Blanket Off
12. Rich Kid Blues
13. These Stones Will Shout
14. Carolina Drama

Overall Rating: 9/10

Obviously a mash up of Mr Stripe and Mr Benson's talents and (in my humble opinion) not a dodgy track on it. Simply amazing.