Worth the Admission Price

Record reviews have been scant on DCMI lately, but the pace will quicken this week. A second batch is almost complete. Until then, here are two recent favorites.

Big Slab of Consolation

As much as I enjoyed The Raconteurs’ debut, it felt slight – I though Jack White unhitched from the Stripes wagon would equal mean guitar work that he couldn’t pound out during his day job.

Broken Boy Soldiers was by no means bad, but short and unable the sake its “cobbled together” feel.

Consolers of the Lonely arrived earlier than anticipated, and the unmistakable blast of White’s guitar drives the entire album.

Moreover, the Raconteurs sound like a seasoned outfit instead of a four friends throwing together a few tunes. Some solos come straight out of unfinished White Stripes songs, but on Consolers, The Raconteurs evolve into their own animal, independent of the heavy precedent White’s famous duo set.

Just on the title track and “Salute Your Solution,” The Raconteurs state loudly that this will be a guitar record. While “You Don’t Understand Me” and “Old Enough” detour into some Seventies mellowness, the squealing intro to “Five on the Five” would flop if wielded by anyone but White.

But the shift in melodies from song to song preserves Consolers' flow. The piano and mandolin of closer "Carolina Drama" push the song into more country terrain than White has covered since "Little Ghost" on Get Behind Me, Satan. The lyrics are weak, but who cares when a song crescendos so magnificently? Besides, few bar bands can match the wailing on the stomper "Hold Up."

White is on a creative roll right now, after the dynamic Icky Thump and now Consolers. By beating the sophomore slump and Meg White’s anxiety attacks canceling the Stripes’2007 tour, the whispers about White bolting the Stripes will start anew.

The critics and rumor-mongers would be better off admiring the statement made on Consolers. This muscular Seventies homage deserves it.

A Far Better Drive-by

The Drive-By Truckers always present a conundrum – I wanted to like them, yet record after record yielded a few worthy song.

Allow me to summarize: Southern Rock Opera – way too many George Wallace songs. The band idolizes the late segregationist governor. We got it. One song would have sufficed.
Decoration Day and The Dirty South? The Truckers wedged a few good songs among too many insular southern experiences and mediocre Skynyrd musings. I didn’t even bother with Blessing and a Curse.

After such diminishing returns, then why take a flier on Brighter Than Creation’s Dark? A new release in the used bin holds amazing sway, and as it turned out, the Truckers finally made the record I wanted from them.

Departing songwriters never bode well for a band, but in the case of Jason Isbell, the Truckers benefit. With so many cooks in the kitchen, it's easy to ruin a recipe.

Left to their own devices, Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley whipped up a smörgåsbord.

“Perfect Timing,” a simple meal of acoustic country, surpasses them all – I used to hate the fool in me/But only in the morning/Now I tolerate him all day long.” “Bob” follows the same template about an outsider following his own moral compass. Few musicians give depth and grace to such outsiders as the Truckers do. "Lisa's Birthday" is Cooley's ode to the hard-luck girl we've all known.

I cannot omit bassist Shonna Tucker's songs and lead vocals - when she grasps the mic, the Truckers are a different band but better for it. “I’m Sorry Houston” and “Home-Field Advantage” fit on this album in a way they would have landed awkwardly on earlier efforts, but become second nature on this record.

Like any 75-minute album, it could use some trimming. Overall, these hedges are layered, tuneful and don’t need much pruning. The Truckers finally found their road and a plethora of new Southern tales to tell.