The Raconteurs

The Raconteurs
Consolers Of The Lonely
(Third Man/Warner)
Jack White’s made his choice: he wants to be a classic-rock, FM-dial, vocal-wailin’ guitar-gargantuan. With The White Stripes’ Icky Thump and this second album from The Raconteurs, he’s given in to his ambition to make music like Led Zeppelin (at its most indulgent) with touches of Kansas and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. On songs such as “You Don’t Understand Me”—and some won’t—parts are multiple and meandering. On “Old Enough,” White sings: “The only way you’ll ever learn a thing is to admit you know absolutely nothing.” Instead of keeping it simple, as that line suggests, the band, sadly, does the 
opposite.
Sean Flinn

This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2008.