Saturday, April 4, 2009

"Who Says Rock is Dead?"

Originally posted 23 May 2008, 21:1

I’ve never been crazy about The Raconteurs’ 2006 debut album Broken Boy Soldiers. I never even bothered checking out their live or non-album material, besides their excellent covers of Gnarls Barkley's “Crazy” and Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).” Despite that, I did always maintain that they had potential to be a great band. After all, it’s Jack White, and as little of a Brendan Benson fan as I am, I can’t deny that he has a good ear for pop melodies (of course, Jack White can bust out great pop tunes, too). In addition to the song-writing force that is White and Benson, The Raconteurs also feature Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler on bass and drums, respectively. While The Raconteurs possess an intrinsic chemistry just from having known and played with each other for years, “Little” Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler were actually in a full-time band together (The Greenhornes), before the formation of The Raconteurs. Given the members’ related pasts, I had a good feeling about the band’s follow-up, that they wouldn’t fall victim to the sophomore slump. After listening to Consolers of the Lonely, there is no question that this is the album The Raconteurs should have made two years ago.

As I’ve said, I’ve never really liked The Raconteurs’ first album. After all, it was made during what I feel was the valley of Jack White’s personal and professional careers. But just as White was reinvigorated during the making of Icky Thump, the same seems to be apparent on Consolers of the Lonely. That’s not surprising, as both albums were made within a close span of time. Hence, the albums are similar in many ways. Both are monumentally dense but move fluidly as singular works. Like Icky Thump, which was characterized by The White Stripes’ return to monstrous riffs, Consolers of the Lonely has the energy to knock down buildings with its propulsive rhythm section and blazing guitar work. The piercing guitar solos and style of organ and piano-playing also recall those on Icky Thump. With The Raconteurs having turned up the volume on Consolers of the Lonely, the album initially feels like White’s album. His presence here is definitely more palpable than it is on Broken Boy Soldiers.

Album flow is not one of the first things I notice about an album. With Consolers of the Lonely, I was definitely too enamored by the high-octane rockicity to notice how the album moved as a collective work. I was also too overwhelmed by how dense the album was. Even when it sounded like the pace was going to slow down and let me catch my breath, the slow parts only lead to climactic showdowns between White and Benson. Their dueling guitars are contained by the percussion which Keeler and Lawrence provide. By keeping the songs in constant states of "controlled chaos," White and Benson are prevented from over-indulging in their instruments. This is good, because they have many new instruments with which to experiment and have fun. Such instruments include White’s signature electric organs and pianos on “You Don’t Understand Me,” “Old Enough,” and “Rich Kid Blues;” trumpets likely inspired by White’s Latin/Spanish phase on “Many Shades of Black” and “Five on the Five;” and banjos and fiddles on “Old Enough” and “Top Yourself.” None of these new instruments are played “expertly,” but the band knows exactly what it’s doing with them and where it wants to take its songs. It’s always refreshing to hear Jack play to a background of different instruments, and we’ve already heard what he can do in those cases.

Besides the fact that Broken Boy Soldiers has a less-varied instrumental palette than Consolers of the Lonely, BBS feels flat for a couple of other reasons too. My complaint isn’t that BBS has fewer instruments than Consolers of the Lonely (over-instrumentation can lead to over-indulgence and an inflated sound that comes off as forced). Rather, it’s what artists do with the instruments at their disposal that matters. While I don’t believe guitar solos make songs (again, there’s a propensity for over-indulgence), they can certainly add life to a song. Most songs on Consolers have, if not a guitar solo, then at least some kind of climax. On BBS, however, I only recall such a moment on “Store Bought Bones.” The beauty of Consolers of the Lonely is that despite the preponderance of climaxes (guitar solos, in particular), at no time do they detract from one another or feel like ostentatious displays of virtuosity.

Another flat aspect of Broken Boy Soldiers is the vocals. I didn’t like Brendan’s voice in the first place, and as I said before, BBS was made during what I felt was the low point of Jack White’s career, one aspect of which was the condition of his voice. The effects of smoking were apparent on tracks such as “Intimate Secretary,” “Portland, Oregon” (from Loretta Lynn’s 2004 album Van Lear Rose which White produced), and the entirety of Get Behind Me Satan. Since Satan, though, White has quit smoking, and on Thump and Consolers, the extent of his recovery is obvious (again, hence his “revitalization” on the two albums).

White’s (partially) restored voice allows him to continue exploring new styles of singing which he develops on every release. Examples from Consolers of the Lonely include the high-pitched screeches on the title-track, the rapid, spitfire deliveries on “Salute Your Solution,” the near-squeals on “Five on the Five,” and the shouting-and-chanting chorus on "Hold Up." However, White’s best moment is his incendiary performance on “Rich Kid Blues” which is like nothing we’ve ever heard from him on record before and marks the vocal high-point of the album.

Even Benson, who usually handles The Raconteurs’ softer material, throws around his vocal weight on Consolers of the Lonely. While many of his songs on the new album are not far stretches from anything that can be expected of him (as far as BBS goes – the best example of which is perhaps “Old Enough”), songs such as “Attention,” “Many Shades of Black,” and the title-track best demonstrate the conviction with which he can use his voice. These songs are refreshing for non-Benson fans, as his opportunity to showcase his vocal skills on the new album convinces me that he is capable of a wider range of songs than I had previously believed. Furthermore, The Raconteurs take advantage of White’s and Benson’s new vocal prowess by building their new songs on fantastic harmonies. Together, Jack’s and Brendan’s untamed deliveries really give the songs a vitality that was much needed on their last album. While the overall soundscape of BBS was rather platitudinous, The Raconteurs utilize every vocal and instrumental tool at their disposal (solos, crescendos, etc.) to create as lively and full an album as possible with their follow-up.

While every song on Consolers of the Lonely is distinct in its own way, a few are of particular note for how well they represent specific aspects of the album. I’ve already mentioned “Rich Kid Blues” which, for me, is the biggest highlight on the album with its fantastic build and passionate delivery. The album closes with “Carolina Drama,” an acoustic ballad which builds to a strong climax and ends with a slow decline. The story involves a young boy named Billy who wakes up one morning to find his mother’s boyfriend beating a priest in their home. The priest turns out to be Billy’s father who had been secretly supporting the family for years. After saving his father by striking the boyfriend dead with “the first blunt thing he could find,” the family, along with the priest, leaves town and heads for a new life in Tennessee. “Carolina Drama” is arguably the best lyrical work with which Jack White has ever been associated. I don’t say the best lyrical work Jack White has ever written, because I don’t know if he actually wrote the lyrics, although details about the father, a priest; the “triple loser” boyfriend; and “head[ing] to Tennessee” are all characteristic of White.

Moving away from lyrics to another defining characteristic of Jack White is his abilities with the guitar. He brings his slide skills to the table for the first (and only) time on the album with the stomping blues rocker “Top Yourself.” We've heard how Jack carries slide-heavy powerhouses such as “Death Letter,” “Red Rain,” “Little Bird,” and “Catch Hell Blues” with the primal support of Meg, but now we get to hear how he changes his dynamic on such a song to accommodate additional players. While “Top Yourself” is not a song on which White unleashes an all-out slide assault (it lacks the technicality of most of the aforementioned songs), the effect is no lighter as Jack bitterly yells and cries along with the rising and falling riff. In no way is Jack out of his element working with greater instrumentation, as “Top Yourself” ranks among his best works with the slide guitar, despite its comparative simplicity.

One of the things I looked forward to the most on Consolers of the Lonely was The Raconteurs’ collaboration with Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of The Hives. Howlin’ Pelle performs the third verse of “Salute Your Solution,” a very straight-forward, Stripesque rock-out that is reminiscent of “Bone Broke” from Icky Thump. Howlin’ Pelle also joins White in the fourth verse which, given White’s and Pelle’s equally energetic deliveries, makes for a very effective pairing of voices.

It’s songs like “Carolina Drama,” “Top Yourself,” and “Salute Your Solution” that make it difficult to give equal credit to every member of The Raconteurs. I realize the bias of my familiarity with Jack White, but I do think every member has upped his game on Consolers of the Lonely. It’s certainly not an album Jack would have made with The White Stripes. While my first impression of Consolers smacked more of an auditory tour de force than an actual flowing album, I changed my mind, after a few listens. I’m not usually a fan of fifty-five-plus-minute albums, but Consolers of the Lonely has enough variety and focus to keep me interested in the entire album. Few bands improve as quickly as The Raconteurs have, and thankfully (and more than satisfyingly), after a few years of playing together and even more years of simple acquaintance, The Raconteurs have finally found their niche. More importantly, they’ve managed to avoid the dreadful sophomore slump which many of my favorites still haven’t been able to shake, three or more albums later.


Edit: Every song was co-written by Jack White and Brendan Benson, except for their cover of "Rich Kid Blues" by Terry Reid.

Edit: Apparently, Brendan Benson does a damned good Howlin' Pelle Almqvist impression. I'm not really sure what Howlin' Pelle did for the the album (if anything). Speculations have it that he recorded footsteps for the album but not where they may appear. Fuck speculations though.

The Kills - Midnight Boom (Domino Records, 2008)

Originally posted 1 Mar 2008, 06:19

I've compared The Kills to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs before, but I’ve always done so loosely. On Midnight Boom, however, I can’t help but be reminded more of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs than on anything else The Kills have ever done. I don’t mean The Kills have started writing songs like “Phenomena” or “Cheated Hearts,” but like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Kills have adopted an obvious (but not complete) change in sound. Unlike the Yeah Yeah Yeahs who focused on songwriting on Show Your Bones, The Kills took their sound in the opposite direction. The songs on Bones are more fleshed out and thus longer than most previous Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs, but most of Midnight Boom barely exceeds three minutes. A couple of tracks are less than 1:50. My problem with The Kills having shaved off so much time on their new album is that the songs don’t feel very thought out. Maybe I haven’t paid enough attention to the lyrics yet, but the lyrical attitude (which I dare say I enjoy more than their dirty riffs and looped drum tracks) on their first two albums doesn’t feel as apparent, on Midnight Boom.

Although I consider Midnight Boom's album and individual track lengths negative aspects of the album, I generally don’t have a problem with short songs or albums (see Guided By Voices and Beat Happening). I generally prefer short albums to long ones which is one reason why I can never sit through a Sufjan or Sigur Ros album. Short songs can definitely be great. I just don’t think The Kills quite deliver on Midnight Boom, to that extent. Also, with only twelve tracks, the album is only thirty-four minutes long. Unless a short album is a real head trip, a lot can be left to be desired, especially when I've waited X years for the artist to put out any material at all (which I did with The Kills). Considering both No Wow and Keep On Your Mean Side hover around forty minutes in length, it's not unreasonable to have expected at least that length on their third album.

Besides the bevy of (comparatively) short tracks, again, the overall sound of Midnight Boom is a departure from The Kills’ previous work. Armani XXXchange’s production is obvious, and it actually blends pleasantly with The Kills’ garage-punk blues. “What New York Used To Be" even reminds me of Peaches, and that’s not a bad thing. Despite all of my grievances, I definitely enjoy Midnight Boom. Most of all, I'm just glad that with a hip-hop producer, the album didn’t turn out like another Black and White Album.