Two Good Bands Develop New Sounds with Mixed Results

Of the innumerable “garage rock” acts that were spawned in the late nineties, a leader among the pack has long been the Akron, OH duo the Black Keys. Entrenched in the blues work of their predecessors, vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney have been churning out raw, heavy cuts since 2002’s The Big Come Up. With Danger Mouse at the boards for 2008’s Attack & Release, the product is, to put it gently, different.

Starting slow with the murky bounce of “All You Ever Wanted” and rolling into the savage introductory cuts of “I Got Mine,” Dan and Patrick seem true to form, with only a slight tinge of updated production. But at the 2-minute mark in “I Got Mine,” the production overrides and overpowers the music. Filling the down-tempo is an assortment of atmospheric beeps, clicks, and background ghost noises—though the eerie background vocals are impressive, the odd, spacey noises are not. Equal parts intriguing and disconcerting, the new feel blurs the often-fine line between the novel and the downright alien.

Redeemingly, the back half of the album is less overtly experimental, though it does share much of the new polish. Particularly rewarding are “Remember When (Side A)” and “Remember When (Side B),” which hearken back to their identity as traditionalists underneath all the new-age layering. The album’s closer, “Things Ain’t Like They Used to Be,” pairs Auerbach’s rough vocals with beautiful back-up by teen Akron phenom Jessica Lea Mayfield, leaving a lasting reminder that the album is a particularly melancholy business. Ultimately, while Attack & Release is certainly a different direction for the band, Danger Mouse’s intrusions often produce mixed results. In all, it’s an odd album by a great band.

In perhaps the best side-project of 2006, The Raconteurs was formed as a “new band made up of old friends,” composed of The White Stripes’ Jack White, power-pop guitarist Brendan Benson, The Greenhornes’ drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence. Their debut, Broken Boy Soldiers, proved to be an especially rewarding affair, particularly for White Stripes fans eager to snap up yet another Jack White offering. Yet among longtime fans, the album was often (harshly) dismissed as little more than a “lite” cousin of the original, even though BBS wouldn’t find a spin in the CD players of vapid teens any more than any Stripes album.

Whether conceived in response to this claim or otherwise, the band’s new Consolers of the Lonely is an unquestionably strong rock record. Borrowing a number of cues from the Stripes’ Icky Thump soundscape, the songs on COTL are predominantly big-guitar numbers. The opening tracks, “Consoler of the Lonely” and “Salute Your Solution,” introduce the album fittingly, grounded in chunky sound and unpredictable tempo shifts. Supplementing the guitar attacks from White and Benson, the band incorporates incredible variety, whether in liberal organ, keyboard, horn work or even simply in the vocal interplay. Folksy additions such as the Celtic fiddle-work in “Old Enough” and banjos in “Top Yourself” add depth to the plowing guitar leads. The album’s lighter fare—such as the gorgeous piano motifs of “You Don’t Understand Me” and “Pull This Blanket Off”—are equally excellent. All in all, the album is a superb synthesis of the band members’ talents and moves in a new, positive direction. Overshadowing even the greatest moments of Broken Boy Soldiers, Consolers of the Lonely is undoubtedly the premier rock effort of 2008 thus far.