The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers

I really despise NME. Really, I do. And now that Arctic Monkeys have finished being the Band Of The Minute and arsed off to flop in America (at last), NME has turned it's misguided eye to The Raconteurs since they are the next Big Thing, it would seem. Or should I say, they are previous-Big-Things who have all combined their Big skills and are now going to make a possible Bigger Thing.

What I'm trying to say is that Jack White teamed up with Brendan Benson and some other guys who are apparently famous too and called themselves The Raconteurs and NME are bumming them already. Urgh. It's enough to make me despise them already. Yes, I know your mouse is probably already hovering over the 'back' button, but bear with me a moment. But after multiple exposures to my brother's copy of this album I actually found myself humming along to 'Store Bought Blues' and the single 'Steady As She Goes'.

Although Jack White has weird hair and shocked even the NME readers (normally fine with commercialised crap) when he sold out to Coca Cola, it does have to be said that this man makes a fine garage blues racket when he wants to. Mingle this with Brendan Benson's gift for the more refined indie ballads, and you're starting to get the idea. The other two guys are completely new to me, but the drummer can actually drum well unlike the strangely-loveable Meg White, god bless her.

'Together' could easily be a Lennon/McCartney creation, and 'Store Bought Bones' is a good foot-stamper. It's not what I expected from this particular blend of musicians, but an interesting listen nonetheless.

Together
Store Bought Bones

This album is available from Play