Consolers of the Odd Couple

Greetings, cherubim! As I sit here on the couch with a rather prodigious hangover (met the lass' parents for the first time last night and ended up getting lit with them and the chef who cooked our meal after a monumental feast -- just another night in the land of Bobby Sunshine...), watching Inter piss away yet another chance to clinch the scudetto, I thought I'd pop in to do a hybrid "songs of the week" and "CD review" edition. First up on the pallet is the title track off the Raconteurs' new disc, Consolers of the Lonely. The song itself shows the band at its best -- dueling guitars, stop-start tempo shifts, Brendan Benson's golden AM radio voice juxtaposed against Jack White's rapid fire wail -- and the lyrics mimic my life the last few months with all this time spent on my project at work:

Haven't seen the sun in weeks,
My skin is getting pale.
Haven't got a mind left to speak
And I'm skinny as a rail.
...

Haven't had a decent meal
My brain is fried.
Haven't slept a wink for real,
My tongue is tied.

Unfortunately the rest of the album doesn't hold up to the strong start.

What worked so well on the band's first album was the tension between its key parts -- Benson's pop tendencies and the gritty blues-rock mayhem of White -- and the richness that gave the bulk of the songs. It was the sound of a band still getting to know each other, and it brought the best out of both men, leaving a debut that had the teeth of a rock album and the pretty sing-along qualities of a pop one. What we've been given this time, though, seems like the product of a happy marriage -- both members are comfortable now and know each other so well that they start to take on the characteristics of the other -- but that stronger bond doesn't yield as strong a product.

It's only natural that some of the excitement that loaded the first release would be gone. The thrill of discovery has disappeared and what's left is satiated contentment, which is not necessarily a fatal flaw. (For either the music or the metaphoric relationship.) Just as with any relationship, though, allowing too much of oneself to be lost in the mix can lead to problems if there isn't any variety or change, and that's abundantly evident here. What was in perfect balance on the first disc -- the pop/rock friction -- has been followed by an album of disarray. Here we've got Benson sounding like White in a host of songs (including the lead single, "Salute your Solution"), adopting his machine gun vocals, and White aping Benson, either by doing nothing, vocally, ("Many Shades of Black") or by letting songs tip the balance too far towards cornball pop or run of the mill classic rock. ("The Switch and the Spur," "Rich Kid Blues")

Thankfully there are moments where everything is as it was -- perfectly aligned and exciting, like the first throes of that burgeoning relationship. Besides the aforementioned title track, "You Don't Understand Me" and "Old Enough" are a great one-two after the disappointing lead single, and "Carolina Drama" has wonderfully resonant imagery (Jack's favorite trio of colors -- red, black, and white) that takes what might be just another hum-drum narrative to another level. Unfortunately, they're too few and far between to save the album.

The band clearly has potential -- when it works, its formula of pitting rock against pop is quite winning -- but it dooms itself here by forgetting that the joy comes in the friction between those component parts. The strongest relationship is the one that allows both individuals to be themselves and come together to create something greater than that person on their own -- the same thing goes for good art and music. Hopefully Benson and White will rediscover themselves and remember that being who you are doesn't necessarily mean the music -- or the relationship -- will suffer as a result.

Check out a live version of the title track from their performance at Coachella (there were no album versions available -- I looked everywhere) here:



As for track number two, it's off another follow-up album, this one Gnarls Barkley's sophomore effort, The Odd Couple. And while this, too, is another uneven affair, it doesn't suffer from the same "subsuming of self" problem as the Raconteurs did. Here, the only problem seems to be the occasional bad song -- Cee-lo still alternates scattershot raps with a croon that soars for the heavens and Danger Mouse still crafts an unbelievably rich soundscape for him to play in. The album just isn't as immediately embraceable as St. Elsewhere was.

There is no blow your face off single along the lines of "Crazy" that's going to worm its way into your brain and infect every cell for weeks on end -- and that's not necessarily a bad thing. "Charity Case," "Surprise," and this week's selection, "Going On" are all immediate gems -- somehow calling to mind the Motown-flourishes of the 60s (albeit it hyped-up and jittery versions of them), and yet sounding completely different and new -- but the rest of the album is a bit tougher to digest. "Would Be Killer," "Open Book," and "Whatever" all grate at first, but on repeated listens slowly reveal their charms (well maybe not the last -- it still sort of annoys when it pops up on the 'Pod, but as Cee says, "whatever.")

And the rest of the album's the same way -- it takes some time to sink in, but ultimately rewards you for the diligence. "Who's Going to Save My Soul" is a good slow burning soul number, "Blind Mary" captures the exuberance of dating the titular sightless woman (just go with it -- this is the guy who sang a song on the last album about loving someone so much necrophilia was a possibility. It's Cee-lo's world, we're just payin' rent.), and the lead single "Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)" is a staccato blast in all senses of the word, sounding the warning bell about the dangers of knowing me/Cee.

This one's not going to grab you by the ears and shake you like the first one did, but give it some time and it'll please you just the same. Check out the track "Going on" -- which has a gonzo African video with Thriller and drumline undertones -- here: