'Supergroup' is a loaded word. What's often defined as a meeting of musical minds and talents can be just as easily dismissed as an opportunity for self-indulgent singers and musicians to further inflate their egos. It came as some surprise, then, that The Raconteurs' 2006 debut was actually a rather satisfying album. Broken Boy Soldiers was an album that accommodated Brendan Benson's melodic guitar-pop with Jack White's raw, bluesy rock sound, but never slipped into supergroup parody.
Yet, the fact that The Raconteurs served just a week's notice to the general public before unleashing follow-up Consolers of the Lonely, speaks louder than any press release could have. Although it follows the same grimy blues trajectory as its predecessor, for the most part, it sounds like The Raconteurs have run out of ideas - and it's only Benson, the real star of the show, who saves them from being just another '70s rock-throwback.
Admittedly, there are divergences from the heavier, fuzz-dunked fare: Old Enough is a cross between a sea shanty, a big band tune and a slinky '60s lounge song; These Stones Will Shout is a stripped-down affair, and the sublime, Benson-led standout Many Shades of Black is a grandiose, horn-laden, mid-tempo tremor.
Consolers of the Lonely doesn't match Broken Boy Soldiers in terms of diversity or even sheer likeability, despite the quartet making an obvious attempt to step up their game and create a bigger, more expansive-sounding album. What is does do is evoke a new appreciation of Brendan Benson's solo work - and that is certainly no bad thing.
