CoronaVinyl Day 39 (2000s): Consolers of The Lonely by The Raconteurs

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

The original CoronaVinyl list of categories wasn't necessarily living in the past, but the only decades that it had as categories were the '70s, '80s, and '90s.  With my expansion of the list, among the many categories I added was the 2000s.

While my vinyl collection is skewed towards older music -- which is to be expected, since vinyl was the main medium used for albums from the '30s to the early '80s -- I do have some releases from the last 20 years.  One such album is The Raconteurs' 2008 sophomore effort, Consolers of the Lonely.  As you may know, The Raconteurs were a bit of a supergroup, with Jack White (who was then still technically in The White Stripes, although they would not officially disband for another three years), Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence of The Greenhornes, and solo artist/indie rocker Brendan Benson. 

White and Benson wrote all but one song on Consolers of The Lonely, and I liked the album even better than their debut album, 2006's Broken Boy Soldiers.  I rated it my favorite album of 2008 and my 12th favorite album of the decade.  Consolers of the Lonely has a great mix of straight forward rock, pop, garage rock, ballads, blues-based rock, and some other songs that I can't really categorize.  But there's really not a bad song on the album.  It's too bad we had to wait another eleven years until they released their third album!

My vinyl copy album was another of the wonderful releases from the Third Man Records Vault club.  As you can see, the album is a tri-fold, and when you unfurl the entire thing, you see the entire scene from the album cover across all three panels.  The album was also split into two gold marbled records, so there are four sides that I get to review.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Salute Your Solution"
This is my favorite Raconteurs song, and it came in at #13 on my list of my Top 100 favorite songs of the 2000s.  It's just a fantastic rock song that has been on my running mix -- were I to run -- basically since it was released.  

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Hold Up"
This could be my second favorite song on the album.  It's another uptempo rocker.

Favorite song from Side 3:  "Attention"
By now, you should be sensing a theme.  This is another fast-paced rock song.  But here's the thing, the band does them really well.  And if there's one thing I like in the world, it's really good rock and roll. 

Favorite song from Side 4:  "Carolina Drama"
While I love "Rich Kid Blues" -- and White's impassioned wailing on that song -- I gave the nod to "Carolina Drama," a fascinating, folkish tale of violence, clergy, and milk that sounds like it could be on one of The White Stripes' first two albums.  It's a story set to music, and it draws you in every time.