THE RACONTEURS
Broken Boy Soldiers
V2
· Outside of a Coke commercial, The Raconteurs are the only source for new Jack White songs.
They're not exactly The Traveling Wilburys, but in terms of chemistry between collaborators, you could still almost call The Raconteurs a supergroup. Splitting lead vocal duties right down the middle, Jack White's fuzzy garage rock freakouts and feverish falsetto are an excellent foil for fellow Detroit singer-songwriter Brendan Benson's meticulously crafted mod pop and sweet, swinging vocal delivery. This is all anchored adeptly by bassist Jack Lawrence and percussionist Patrick Keeler, two-thirds of Cincinnati's likeminded retro-revivalists The Greenhornes. That said, White steals the show for the most part throughout the album with more muscular guitar riffs and a much more unique vocal style, constantly baring his soul as Benson merely drifts by. It's the songs with the White Stripe in the driver's seat that really shine, like the snappily singable opener "Steady, As She Goes," the psychedelic Led Zep-inspired title-track, and the loungy album closer "Blue Veins," which even includes an interlude of backwards vocals. The best song sung by Benson is easily the Hammond organ-propelled "Store Bought Bones," and strangely enough, it's the hardest rocking number here, too. Broken Boy Soldiers might not be an enduring masterpiece, but it's a heck of a lot better than most one-off side-projects, and until the next Stripes record, it's definitely the next best thing.
|
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.