You're Gonna Need the Good Lord to Help You

About ten days ago, buried deep in the Music folder on my laptop that I rarely visit, I found The Raconteurs and decided to give them another try. I'd heard bits and pieces from their previous album and had downloaded "Old Enough" on an impulse about a year back, having heard it playing on Vh1 after coming home from my Luthra internship one rainy evening.

One thing that really hits you about Consolers of the Lonely is how obviously indie it is and tries to be. Not surprisingly, this is a good and a bad thing. That I've been moved to write this at all is proof that it is more good than bad, given the fact that I have the musical taste the width of a peanut.

There are five stellar songs on this album, more than any other album in recent times that I've had the patience to listen to. Leaving aside my classification of "Old Enough" as one of these five, based, as it is, purely on the repetitive good feeling that TV overkill manages to generate (a feature that many people cite as the only possible explanation for Rihanna's "Umbrella" being even remotely tolerated by humanity), I have, believe it or not, been genuinely moved by the other four songs.

Normally, to consider "Top Yourself" a good song after listening to "Old Enough" would be akin to liking Coldplay's "Speed of Sound" immediately after complementing "Clocks" for the masterpiece that it is, so similar are the two in most material particulars. What makes "Top Yourself" worthwhile, however, is the gnarling arrogance that makes it a tough sell to practically anyone apart from people like me.

I'm pretty sure, though, that "Consoler of the Lonely" and "You Don't Understand Me" are more amenable to popular acclaim, particularly the latter for its mesmerising piano and off-key harmony. The album also contains the best closing song I've heard in a while--"Carolina Drama"--which is like a cross between Eminem's "Stan" and Robbie Williams' "Me and My Monkey", while staying true to the rough-around-the-edges feel to the group that has only been enhanced by the comfortably decent "The Switch and the Spur", "Many Shades of Black" and "Rich Kid Blues". I can also imagine why "Five on the Five" and "These Stones Will Shout" have proven to be live hits among the unique sub-culture that is defined as fans of The Raconteurs, but I have a bit of trouble digesting what strikes me as being incredibly wasteful music--a judgement I can only pass generously on "Salute Your Solution", the first single off Consolers of the Lonely.

But there's something about this band. Something very greatest hits-ey. Like a breath of fresh air that accompanies long-awaited rain. Like it is right now, outside my room. :)