Music Review
Broken Boy Soldiers
The Raconteurs
"This is not a Jack White side project." So says White Stripes's frontman Jack White of his new band The Raconteurs. It may not be in his mind, but a lot of people are viewing it that way?Jack?s playing bass with some friends until the next Stripes release etc. In the strange world that is indie rock, the Raconteurs count as something of a supergroup: Brendan Benson from Brendan Benson on guitars/vocals/keys; Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler from the Greenhornes on bass and drums.
The story behind the Raconteurs goes something like this: Benson and White, friends and occasional collaborators, wrote this tune that Benson thought was just too good to give to White for the White Stripes's Get Behind Me Satan album. The song led to the creation of a band, and the band to an album. The album is Broken Boy Soldiers.
The song that started it all is 'Steady as She Goes.' It kicks off Broken Boy Soldiers, and it?s surely the garage rock anthem of the year with a chorus that explodes out of the fabric of the song, and a fuller sound that helps fill out White?s reedy voice. 'Steady as She Goes' gives a bit of an inaccurate representation of the Raconteurs? songs, since it's more or less a White Stripes song plus bass. What do they sound like? garage-tinged/power-pop/rock, the sort of straightforward rock songs that do well on commercial radio stations of all kinds.
The rest of the album is not as good as the lead single. Of course it's a natural thought that if a band has formed on the back of a single song, the other nine songs on their CD will have a difficult time living up. Some of the songs seem unfinished, or just too experimental in a very basic way?they just don't work. There is also a lot of cliché in the lyric department, which only adds to the sense of something missing from the core of this project. There are moments of fun?echoes of melody and riff that have potential. Perhaps White and Benson in particular need to commit to a lengthier creative partnership to see where it all could go.
The story behind the Raconteurs goes something like this: Benson and White, friends and occasional collaborators, wrote this tune that Benson thought was just too good to give to White for the White Stripes's Get Behind Me Satan album. The song led to the creation of a band, and the band to an album. The album is Broken Boy Soldiers.
The song that started it all is 'Steady as She Goes.' It kicks off Broken Boy Soldiers, and it?s surely the garage rock anthem of the year with a chorus that explodes out of the fabric of the song, and a fuller sound that helps fill out White?s reedy voice. 'Steady as She Goes' gives a bit of an inaccurate representation of the Raconteurs? songs, since it's more or less a White Stripes song plus bass. What do they sound like? garage-tinged/power-pop/rock, the sort of straightforward rock songs that do well on commercial radio stations of all kinds.
The rest of the album is not as good as the lead single. Of course it's a natural thought that if a band has formed on the back of a single song, the other nine songs on their CD will have a difficult time living up. Some of the songs seem unfinished, or just too experimental in a very basic way?they just don't work. There is also a lot of cliché in the lyric department, which only adds to the sense of something missing from the core of this project. There are moments of fun?echoes of melody and riff that have potential. Perhaps White and Benson in particular need to commit to a lengthier creative partnership to see where it all could go.